A look at the Chorti, Poton Lenca, and Pipil peoples of El Salvador, birthplace of Mesoamerican civilizations, as well as recognizing the indigenous spirit in the struggle for social justice today.

Archeological Sites

03/02/2014

This post tells the story of the rise of the Toltec civilization in central Mexico about 50 years after the fall of Teotihuacan, comprised of two of the seven ethnicities that made up Teotihuacan, the Totonac and Cakchiquel. It describes the oppressive practices of the Toltec which caused refugees fleeing north and south, the latter becoming the Nawat-speaking Pipil who went to El Salvador. Some of the Toltec followed the refugees to El Salvador where they ruled for about 130 years until their centers were burned. Seventy years later, in a bitter split of the Toltec, the losers, the Nahuatlized Totonac, also fled to El Salvador.

The Toltec civilization was active from 800 to 1150 CE, based in Tula in the current Mexican state of Hidalgo. Tula is located 60 kilometers northwest of Teotihuacan and 75 kilometers north of Mexico City. Tula is Tollan in Nahuatl and probably comes from Tulan in Ch'orti'. Tulan shares the last syllable with Aztlan and in Ch'orti' would be tul lah ahn or "condition of fatigued current," describing the Gulf of Fonseca where the ancient origin place of Isla Tigre is located.

Tula and Chichen Itza in the Yucatan have some architectural similarities that could indicate a relationship. (Fowler)

Many of sculptures and images at Tula are warriors or relate to human sacrifice. The wikipedia entry for Tula says, "War and sacrifice are prominent themes at the site with images representing warriors such as jaguars and coyotes as well as eagles eating human hearts. There are also images of serpents eating skeletal figures and skulls in various areas." The name Toltec reflects this identity. It was a name given by the Ch'orti' and it is not complementary. In Ch'orti' it is tol tech and means "expansion of the bruisers." Bruisers could also be translated mutilators, torturers, or sacrificers.

The chakmool sculptures are common at Tula. They have a reclining person with a stone tray on their stomach. It is thought that they were used to hold sacrificing gifts like tamales although a later Aztec one contained an object like a human heart. The name chakmool indicates that at Tula they were also for human hearts. Chakmool is chak mol in Ch'orti' and means "red pile," a reference to a bloody heart.

The "expansion of the bruisers" created a humanitarian disaster in central Mexico. The captures, killings, and human sacrificing must have been at a scale never seen before in Mesoamerica. The rise of human sacrifice at Tula may have contributed to the downfall of the Maya at the end of the Classic period. First, it may have created a moral crisis for the Maya that a Mesoamerican people (of Maya background) could engage in such a high level of human sacrificing. Second, many of the Maya likely became involved in plans to evacuate much of the central Mexico population. Coordinating the evacuation would have distracted the Maya leadership. Tikal's last major pyramid and monuments were built in 810 CE, about ten years after the founding of Tula. Copan's last king came to power in 822 CE but the monument he commissioned was never finished.

I believe that much of the dispersion of the Uto-Aztecan language group is due to the evacuation of Nahuatl speakers from the central valley of Mexico during the time of the Toltec. Later, Nahuatl speakers also fled the Aztec, especially the Nicarao who fled to Nicaragua. At the time of the Toltec, Nahuatl-speaking groups who became the Shoshone, Paiute, Hopi, Comanche, Pima, Yaqui, Mayo, and Tarahumara were likely fleeing the Toltec bruisers.

Some have names, likely given by the Ch'orti' coordinating the evacuation, that reflect the difficult time. For example, Yaqui is yah ki' in Ch'orti' and means "painful heart." This likely reflects both the pain suffered by their relatives who were sacrificed, as well as their emotional pain of losing loved ones and leaving their homeland. Mayo is mah yo'b in Ch'orti' and means "bad ones strike" and would seem to indicate the blows from the Toltec warriors that they endured.

Among those who went north were nahuatlized Mixteca, Otomi, Huasteca, Quiche, Olmeka, Mejica, and Purepecha. As they went north they gained new identities as Hopi, Comanche, Shoshone, Pima, and Yaqui, etc. As they got to know their new neighbors, the Zuni, they gained the name Chicano, ch'i' kah noh, which means "small ones and large ones from the beginning." The Zuni were a taller race and were cousins of the Xibalba, whom the Maya ancestors confronted for over a thousand years when they first arrived in Central America. Relations were probably not much better with the Zuni.

The oral tradition calls the migration, the "Pipiltzin". The last syllable is sin or "series," which suggests that there were several waves of migrations from Central Mexico to eastern Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Pipiltzin could also mean "numbers of Pipil," signifying a large migration.

My reading of Fowler's The Cultural Evolution of Ancient Nahua Civilizations, the Pipil-Nicarao of Central America, is that likely there were four post-Classic migrations from Central Mexico to Central America:

Those fleeing the Toltec who went to western El Salvador, the first to be called Pipil

A Toltec group that followed the refugees to El Salvador

A Nonoalco group that was timed with the winding down of the Toltec, who also went to El Salvador

The Nicarao group that fled the Aztec probably in the 14th century and went to Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

The first migration, and possibly later ones, was called Pipil, a name which confirms the oral tradition that the Ch'orti' accompanied the Pipil. In Ch'orti' it is pi pil or "companions on the journey" - a beautiful name. The Pipil journey and name make the other name for the Pipil - Nahuat - that much more ironic. Nahuat also comes from Ch'orti' - nab wat - and means "forget about returning home." At the end of the Teotihuacan days a new common language developed, Nahuat (Nabwat) or Nahuatl, and people left behind their old languages because they resigned themselves to the idea that they would never return home (to El Salvador).

But the Pipil, the Nahuat, did return home, although likely under duress. Just like the refugees who fled north, the Pipil were likely made up of many different ethnicities. To clarify, at that time Nahuat was a language, not an ethnicity. But on the journey, the Pipil became a new ethnicity. Their ethnicities of origin would have been Mixteca (or Zapotec), Otomi, Huasteca, Quiche, Olmeka, Mejica, and Purepecha. All, without exception, had roots in El Salvador.

A 9th century arrival of the Pipil to El Salvador is mostly supported by Fowler, who cites two linguistic studies, one showing a Nawat language divergence of 650 to 850 CE and another one of 801 CE. Fowler also cites de Borhegyi who saw evidence for three migrations, the first of which was in about 800 CE.

The place name Santa Isabel Ishuatan, in southeast Sonsonate department, supports the idea of the Pipil as refugees. It is ix wat ahn in Ch'orti' and means "return home in running movement."

Soon after the Pipil arrived in El Salvador, it appears that a group of the Toltec decided to follow them. In part this may have been to expand Toltec culture to historically important El Salvador. But it was more likely to intimidate the newly arrived Pipil who had just fled the Toltec and their human sacrifice ways. Based on the Cihuatan Archeology Project, the site of Cihuatan, near Aguilares, was established in about 900 CE, marking the arrival time of the Toltec. They likely came by boat from Mexico - walking from Tula to a river like the Rio Balsas, down the Pacific Coast, then up the Lempa, and disembarking at Suchitoto. From Suchitoto it is a 20 kilometer walk west to the Cihuatan site, around the north side of Guazapa volcano.

The name Suchitoto tells us who the Toltec were. It is a Ch'orti' name, either given by the Ch'orti' or the Toltec used a Ch'orti' naming protocol. Suchitoto is sutz si t'ot toh and means "numbers of bats and tap sacrificers." The only Mesoamerican people with a bat emblem are the Cakchiquel. The Cakchiquel are also mentioned in the Popol Vuh with a bat emblem. Even more, during the first round of human sacrificing in about 8300 BCE, the Popol Vuh says that the Cakchiquel were the only lineage to be exempt from human sacrifice, presumably because they first cultivated tobacco so they did not have to "draw a straw."

The other half of Suchitoto - "tap sacrificers" - does make a vague reference to the practice of heart sacrifice of the Toltec, but it is the two syllables together "toto," that tell us that the Totonac were the other lineage that were part of the Toltec. The Cakchiquel and the Totonac made up two of the seven groups that founded Teotihuacan and it appears that they were the two strong groups coming out of Teotihuacan ready to form the next culture.

Source of photo. Cihuatan is one of the most important archeological sites in El Salvador. It is located about 45 kilometers north of San Salvador and just a few kilometers northeast of Aguilares. The fertile soils on the west and north sides of Guazapa Volcano were utilized extensively for cacao as well as staples like corn, squash, and beans.

Cihuatan was a large, multi-cultural city, similar to Chichen Itza in the Yucatan. Those who have studied it (Brahn) have found at least seven neighborhoods, including Maya and Lenca neighborhoods, each with its own ceremonial center. Based on who was living in El Salvador at the time, groups present at Cihuatan likely included the Cakchiquel, Totonac, Lenca, Ch'orti', and several ethnicities of Pipil.

The meaning of Cihuatan supports a Mexican migration. Cihuatan has a double meaning. The name crafters were skilled, finding a name with meaning in Nawat and in Ch'orti'. In Nawat, Cihua means "woman" and refers to the feminine reclined shape of the nearby Guazapa volcano.

Ch'orti' was used as a naming language throughout Mesoamerica, including the second meaning of "Cihuatan". It is si wat ahn and means "return home to the series of currents." The use of the phrase "return home" is relevant since the Cakchiquel and Totonac were each banished from El Salvador to Mexico due to pellagra, the Cakchiquel in about 2300 BCE and the Totonac between 2300 and 2000 BCE. The "series of currents" - many rivers - would have been in contrast to the dryness of Mexico's central valley and Veracruz. By using the syllable wat ("return home") in the name of Cihuatan, the Toltec legitimized their move to El Salvador on humanitarian grounds - people returning to their ancient homeland. The name helps to mask their possible motive of intimidation in their move to El Salvador.

The Toltec built many other ceremonial centers in addition to Cihuatan. Some of these other centers include Santa Maria, Mucuyo, Monte Redondo, La Esmerelda, and Zacotonal (San Francisco).

One can see a broader extension of Toltec and, especially, Cakchiquel influence in the place names to the east of Cihuatan: Chalatenango, Pepeishtenango, Papaturo (maybe), Tenango, Tenancingo, and Pepeto. Tobacco growing and processing is still somewhat common in this area - another Cakchiquel influence, as it was the Cakchiquels who first grew tobacco on Isla Tigre, Honduras.

The Toltec at Cihuatan did not arrive to a power vacuum. The Ch'orti' at Chalchuapa and San Andres effectively controlled most of El Salvador west of the Lempa River, as well as Chalatenango. The Ch'orti' were weary of the Toltec. The name Aguilares shows the Ch'orti', watching the arrival of the Toltec: ak' il ahr retz, which means "viewing the occasion of the rising of the flag." In addition, the Cotzumalhuapa had controlled Cara Sucia since about 600 CE. And the Lenca controlled the east.

The Toltec arrived with a military force. Archeological evidence indicates that Chalchuapa and Cara Sucia were taken over by a central Mexican presence in about 900 CE (Fowler). Toltec warrior plaques were present at the Loma China site in San Vicente near the Puente Cuscatlan (Fowler). Controlling the Lempa River would have been very strategic for the Toltec, given the predominance of water travel by the Ch'orti'. The Toltec also took over Lago Guija (Fowler), especially important for the Totonac since their roots were there.

Further evidence that Cihuatan was a Toltec center consists of the figurines and biconical spiked censers there that are like those at Tula (Fowler). Likewise, the wheeled figurines are like those on the Gulf Coast (Totonac). The architectural structures at Cihuatan are central Mexican and similar those at Chichen Itza.

The Toltec ruled over western El Salvador for about 130 years. In about 1030 CE, according to the Cihuatan Archeological Project, Cihuatan fell. Enemies destroyed Cihuatan and all the other ceremonial centers by fire (and possibly gunpowder explosions). It is unclear who these enemies were but at the top of the list of their enemies would have been the Ch'orti' who were displaced by the Toltec and were against the human sacrificing ways of the Toltec. The Ch'orti', and their likely allies, the Putun, also would have been capable, even in the Post-Classic.

The surviving Toltec leaders most likely fled north to the Lempa River to boats that would take them eventually to Mexico. It seems likely that many of the Toltec-related people in the area stayed. They spoke Nawat, like the Pipil. These Toltec descendants, whether Totonac or Cakchiquel, would have been counted as Pipil at the time of the arrival of the Spanish.

A third migration out of central Mexico occurred around 1100 CE, about 70 years after Cihuatan fell. It is called the Nonoalco migration and is associated with the Veracruz Gulf Coast (Totonac). It is known that there was an internal power struggle at Tula in about 1100 CE. It is likely that the Cakchiquel were victorious over the Totonac in this power struggle and that the Totonac Toltec, called the Nonoalco, fled to El Salvador, the second major wave of the Pipil.

According to the archeology, a new wave of central Mexicans founded Antigua Cuscatlan, El Salvador, at about that time (Fowler) - most likely the Nonoalco Pipil. Later, Antigua Cuscatlan became the center of the Pipil kingdom. Place names indicate that the Nonoalco also settled in La Paz department in the area of Zacatecoluca.

Counting the Toltec and Nonoalco waves, I would roughly estimate the ethnicities of the Pipil in El Salvador to be about one-third Totonac, one-fourth Otomi, one-sixth each Cakchiquel and Mejica, and smaller portions of Quiche, Mixtec, and Purepecha. The presence of Quiche Pipil is likely at San Antonio Masahuat and San Pedro Masahuat in La Paz department. Masa is "deer" in Nawat and Ch'orti' and wat means "return home" in Ch'orti', so Masahuat is "return home of the deer". Deer is the totem animal of the Quiche, seen at Mazatlan, for example. Also many "deer" leaders of the Quiche are listed in the Popol Vuh.

The last migration wave from central Mexico was caused by the Aztec (Mejica) oppression and practice of human sacrifice. This is the Nicarao wave that primarily went to Nicaragua. The oral history of the Nicarao states that they had been subjugated by the Olmeca. Earlier I showed that the Mejica (Aztec) and the Olmeca were the same people, linking the migration of the Nicarao to the rise of the Aztec. Some of this last wave likely settled eastern Guatemala as well, with some possibly going to Honduras and El Salvador.

In conclusion, the rise of the Toltec threw central Mexico into chaos. Refugees fled north and south, giving rise to many new Native nations in the north and the Pipil in El Salvador, the "companions on the journey." One group of Toltec followed the refugees to El Salvador where they ruled for about 130 years. Ironically, one of the two Toltec ethnicities, the Totonac, had to flee themselves from Tula, becoming the second wave of the Pipil. A major portion of the Salvadoran indigenous milieu is based in this complex post-Classic history.

12/24/2013

The pellagra crisis devastated the Maya community from 2400 to 1600 BCE, including nine banishments out of El Salvador, and one banishment within El Salvador. The Chol-Ch'orti'-Tzeltal lineage remaining in El Salvador probably went into a long period of self-examination and renewal. This post describes what came out of this period of renewal - a time of meditation, movement, gymnastics, and science, including bird watching and shark study. (Click to enlarge map.)

The Chol-Ch'orti'-Tzeltal lineage likely moved from Igualtepeque at Lago Güija to Chalchuapa soon after the discovery of the nixtamal process in 1600 or 1500 BCE. Chalchuapa is located 40 kilometers southwest of Igualtepeque and about 40 kilometers inland from the Pacific. Importantly, the Maya would have had access to the ocean from the nearby Rio Paz, about ten kilometers away. Chalchuapa is also 10 kilometers north of the Apaneca Range, with an altitude of 1800 to 2365 meters.

Chalchuapa was occupied for 2700 years by the Ch'orti', from 1500 BCE to 1200 CE, when the Ch'orti' probably moved to their current location in eastern Guatemala. Sometime between 1200 CE and the arrival of the Spanish, a Quiche-related Pokomam group moved into Chalchuapa and were present at Spanish contact. The Chol-Tzeltal lineages probably left the Chalchuapa area near the end of the pre-Classic period for the Chiapas-Palenque area, while some of the elite Ch'orti' went to Copan at the same time.

The Chol-Ch'orti'-Tzeltal built five ceremonial centers in Chalchuapa: Tazumal, Pampe, Trapiche, Casa Blanca, and Las Victorias. Unfortunately the Maya names of the latter two have been lost. The remaining names around Chalchuapa tell a story of meditation, yoga, and gymnastics, most likely beginning soon after they moved there in about 1500 BCE.

Tazumal at Chalchuapa

The first location that the Maya went to was probably Tazumal, later a pre-Classic and Classic site. Tazumal is tas uh mar in Ch'orti' or "sacred cutting of open space," referring to clearing the land when they first arrived. Not surprisingly, within a few hundred meters of Tazumal, is a park called Jardines de Eden. Eten means "challenge of flattening" and is a word the Maya had associated with clearing land before a new settlement since their arrival in El Salvador in about 8680 BCE.

Half a kilometer from Tazumal, in the opposite direction as Jardines de Eden, is a lagoon, Laguna Cuscachapa (right). In Ch'orti' it is k'ux kach ap ha' or "sore from tied swing over water." They likely tied a swing to the top of a tree in the lagoon and became sore from dropping at high distances into the lagoon.

Another pre-Classic site at Apaneca, 15 kilometers to the southwest, also speaks to gymnastics. Apaneca is ap bah neh k'ah and means "happy swinging of bodies with tails." "With tails" most likely refers to a rope system tied around the swinging bodies. Perhaps the Apaneca swinging bodies were similar to the flying dancers of the Totonac who still conduct a flying dance with ropes.

The name Chalchuapa speaks to both the gymnastics of the Maya as well as the meditation or yoga. In Ch'orti', Chalchuapa is ch'a'al ch'u ap bah or "hanging, swinging, and horizontal bodies." This was a center of movement and meditation.

The gymnastics and meditation spread to Ch'orti' communities in the northern part of present-day San Vicente department, where there is a lagoon named Laguna Chalchuapa. To reinforce that it was named after the movement activities at Chalchuapa and not the name itself, a neighboring lagoon is named Apastepeque, or ap bah as te' (plus the generic suffix peque). Apastepeque means "practice bodies swinging in trees" and like Laguna Cuscachapa, the Maya used the lagoon water as a landing pad. One other interesting name here is the village of El Guayabo, way ahb ho', which means "likeable sleep swinging." This clearly refers to a hammock - in present-day Ch'orti' one of the meanings of ahb is "hammock." Either the hammock was invented here or simply used here.

Back in western El Salvador, one of the other ceremonial centers, two kilometers from Tazumal, is Pampe, which is bah am per or "drawn in spider bodies." While this could describe some gymnastic moves, it more likely is describing a yoga-like pose. (Note: the b and p sounds were identical at that time. Also the final r was often dropped in words ending in 'er'.) Pampe is also the name of a river that goes from near Chalchuapa to the Rio Paz. The Pampe River has an alternate name of Güeveapa or weh per ap bah, meaning "swinging bodies, drawn in flesh." This name speaks to both the gymnastics and the "drawn in spider" pose.

A village eight kilometers west of Chalchuapa is Izcaquilio or ix kah ki' li ho, meaning "beginning of likeable movement beside the heart." This seems to indicate that it was here that the yoga-like meditation was first done. It is interesting that it began away from Chalchuapa where the elite would have lived. It was someone of more common descent, who lived outside the main center, who invented this meditation. This type of meditation having its origin point in this area is reinforced by the nearby town of Turin, or tur in, which means "first condition."

About eight kilometers from Izcaquilio in the opposite direction of Chalchuapa is a village called Cuyanausul. In Ch'orti' it is k'u(ar) yana us ul or "explain useful changes to the founders (leaders)." The useful changes refer to the spiritual-emotional changes caused by the yoga meditation. This also shows that the meditation practice spread to several villages before they explained it to the leadership of Chalchuapa. Izcaquilio, Turin, and Cuyanausul are all in the modern-day department of Ahuachapan and the name Ahuachapan supports the idea that yoga-like meditation began there. It is ah wa' ch'a' ban in Ch'orti' and means "the one being in a good horizontal (position)" or "the good horizontal being."

Another clear indication of Maya yoga-like meditation is the written symbol for the tzolk'in day sign Ch'i' (Manik in Yucatec) - it is a mudra. Ch'i' means "growth," linking the meditation pose to growth as human beings. Curiously, this mudra is called Chinmaya in Buddhism. Chinmaya would mean "Maya vibration" in Ch'orti'.

The Ch'orti' taught the neighboring Lenca in eastern El Salvador to do yoga. The name Arambala is ahr am bah lah and means "the time of fatigued spider bodies." The spider body mention matches that of the Pampe River near Chalchuapa. Arambala is located north of the Torola River in Morazan department.

There is evidence that the Maya yoga-like meditation, begun near Chalchuapa, continued through the Classic period to the Maya post-Classic. Meditation images are seen at Chichen Itza, a post-Classic site in the northern Yucatan. These images are associated there with Kukulcan, the feathered serpent. In the Chol-Ch'orti'-Tzeltal family of languages, Kukulcan is Kukulchon. In Ch'orti', Kukulchon is kuk k'ur chon or "exchange of rolled up one and one with points (feathers)." Kukulkan is the combination of serpent (a rolled up yoga-meditative body) and the feathered one (a gymnast swinging from the trees).

The concept of the feathered serpent seems to have originated in El Salvador during the time of meditation and gymnastics in the pre-Classic. This is seen in the name Chanmico, found in at least three locations in El Salvador. The most prominent Chanmico is a lagoon and nearby town in present-day La Libertad department about ten kilometers east of the pre-Classic and Classic era site of San Andres and even closer to the Joya de Ceren site. Chanmico is chan mi k'o and means "cat's bird serpent." The bird serpent seems equivalent to the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl or Kukulcan.

A second example of Chanmico is a place name (cantón) in current-day San Salvador within two kilometers of the Zacamil place name mentioned later. A third example of Chanmico is a village in current-day San Vicente department not far from the Lempa River and about ten kilometers east of Apastepeque, mentioned earlier. While it is impossible to prove the date of the use of the name Chanmico, all three examples of Chanmico lie within areas of pre-Classic Maya activity including meditation and gymnastics.

There are links between the Ch'orti' language and Toltec yoga-like meditation. This demonstrates that the Ch'orti' Maya were the likely originators of the Mesoamerican yoga-like meditation. The name of this meditation in Toltec is Kinam. This name comes from kin am in Ch'orti' and means "spider limbs" - a direct link to the name Pampe ("drawn-in spider body") at Chalchuapa.

Among the four steps of the meditation process among the Toltec, the third and fourth steps still retain meaning in Ch'orti'. The third step, which means divinization in Toltec, is teochiwa. In Ch'orti' this is teo ch'i' wa' and means "growth of the divine being." The fourth step means transparency in Toltec and is chipawa. In Ch'orti' it is ch'i' bah wa' and means "growth of the body being" or body-spirit being.

Embedded in the first syllable of Kukulcan/Kukulchon is K'uhk', the Ch'orti' word for the Siguanaba, described by the Wisdom, University of Chicago, Ch'orti' dictionary as an "ugly female apparition who is protectress of stream and fish and who frightens immoral people on lonely trail at night." Some people in Central America still believe in La Siguanaba who is seen as half hero - half mysterious, feared ghost. The root of La Siguanaba takes us back to meditation and gymnastics. Siguanaba in Ch'ort'i is si wa'an ahb pah or "series of rising, swinging bodies." La Siguanaba are those who protect the forest and streams, swinging from the trees.

The Maya day sign Ahmok speaks to meditation as well. It is am mo' ok and means "walking bird spider." The walking bird probably came first to honor the flying bird men who were gliding in 2400 BCE and possibly earlier, according to Palenque inscriptions. At that time Ahmok would have translated as "the bird one". The spider refers to yoga practice. Ahmok may have been the very first Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan incarnation, but beginning as a feathered spider rather than a feathered serpent. Very soon, with Kukulchon, it became a feathered serpent.

Whether from the gymnastics or the yoga-like moves, the Maya had to deal with pain and soreness. A kilometer from Tazumal is a neighborhood called Cuje. This is k'ux che' and means "handle soreness." One way that they dealt with soreness is explained by the name of one of the five ceremonial centers, Trapiche (right). In Ch'orti' it is t'a' lahb pi che' and means "handle rubbing companion's flesh." The Maya were practicing massage.

Another way that the Maya practiced healing arts was through the sweat lodge. There are clues that this practice may have begun during the pre-Classic period in El Salvador as well. The sweat lodge is called temazcal or temazcalli in Nahuat and it is easy to see the Ch'orti' origin of this word. In Ch'orti' it is te' max cal li or "next to cavity of wood and lime." Temazcal is "cavity of wood and lime" and describes the oven to bake limestone into lime that was then used to soak corn in the nixtamal process. The Maya found the smoke of the baking limestone to be especially healthful.

While Temazcal is the oven, Temazcalli is the sweat lodge next to the oven. This also shows the derivation of the Nahuat word calli from Ch'orti'. Calli means house or structure in Nahuat and its first meaning must have been from sweat lodge or Temazcalli. Calli would mean "beside the lime" in Ch'orti'. Calli is one of the 20 day signs in the Aztec 260-day calendar. This same day sign in the Ch'orti' calendar is Ak'bar, the founder of the Ch'orti' lineage upon arrival in El Salvador in 8680 BCE. This is a clear indicator that it was the Ch'orti' lineage which originated calli, the house beside the lime.

Maya Science and Education

During the pre-Classic period at Chalchuapa, the Maya developed a knowledge base of birds and sharks. These are probably only the beginning of their science knowledge. This also may be when they developed an education system for their children.

The Maya knowledge of birds was so extensive that they were able to differentiate local birds and non-native (migratory) birds. Before one can identify a migratory bird one must identify most or all local birds. The primary areas of bird watching were the area around Chalchuapa as well as much of the current-day departments of Ahuachapán, Sonsonate, and to a lesser extent, La Libertad. Another cluster of bird-based place names occurs in Cabañas, about 120 kilometers northeast of Chalchuapa, indicating that it was another center of Maya population during the pre-Classic era.

The pre-Classic Maya often used the noun k'o' or "bird-beak" to denote bird. I translate it as bird beak even though the meaning in most cases is bird.

Atiquizaya: at ti' ki' tz'a' yah - swollen bright-breasted bathing at opening. Atiquizaya was probably named before the meditation practice began since it is nearly at the midpoint of the three places with meditation-related names, yet does not have a meditation-related name itself.

Rio Sensunapan: tzen sun ap pan - laughing non-native fruit parakeet (parakeets or parrots are generally not migratory so this may refer to one on the edge of their range, like the Red-lored Amazon Parrot)

Jiquilisco in coastal Usulután also appears to be a bird-based name: ji' ki' il li ix k'o or "observe the moving breasted bird next to sandbar." This is only a portion of the bird-based place names in El Salvador. This should demonstrate the extensive practice of bird-watching, most likely taking place in the pre-Classic time period, mostly in western El Salvador, but also in pockets around present-day San Salvador and Cabañas. The identification of non-native birds - eight examples cited above - show that the Maya had an extensive mental or written list of native birds: a scientific method.

Not only did the Maya observe birds, but also iguanas. There are several place names in El Salvador with iguana names:

Juayua: juh yuh ha' - necklace iguana in the water

Jujutla: juh hut lah - tired-faced iguana

Jutiapa: juh ti' ap pa' - food swinging in mouth of iguana

"Companion Shark"

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Maya's scientific inquiry had to do with sharks. This took place at the site known as Cara Sucia in far western El Salvador. There are at least two shark-based place names in other parts of El Salvador. The first is the municipal seat of Jucuarán, located in the east, in Usulután department. Jucuarán is about 13 kilometers from the ocean, but the municipal territory extends to the ocean, including Playa El Espino. Jucuarán is huhk' wa'ar ahn in Ch'orti', meaning "sharp-edged jaguar in the current." It seems they used the image of a jaguar to describe the shark. This was likely an attack or death due to the shark. It is likely that the name El Espino - "the spine" - also originated from this same incident.

To the west, the beach and beach-side town of Majahual in La Libertad, is in the midst of the international surfing zone, also refers to a shark, and likely a shark attack. Majahual is mah h'a wa'ar, meaning "bad water jaguar." This reference is clearly referring to a shark rather than a jaguar, calling it a "water jaguar." Additionally, Majahual is situated right on the beach.

This takes us to the lagoon next to the pre-Classic and Classic site of Cara Sucia. Cara Sucia had two stages of development. During the pre-Classic period it had development starting from 1200 BCE through the late pre-Classic. Most of the structures were built during the late Classic from 650 CE to 950 CE. The site is unique along the Pacific Coast being so close to the ocean - about ten kilometers. During the pre-Classic period it would have been even closer to the ocean, given the rising western Central American continental shelf.

(Click to enlarge.) Less than three kilometers from the pre-Classic site is a lagoon called either Gamboa or Bijagual, depending on the map. Gamboa has a rather generic meaning, k'am po' ha' or "useful hole of water," although it does suggest it has a specific purpose. Bijagual has an unequivocal meaning, pi ha' wa'ar or "companion water jaguar." Given the previous evidence that "water jaguar" refers to the shark, the meaning of the lagoon is "companion shark." This most likely refers to either befriending the sharks or studying the sharks.

The lagoon is located 200 meters from a small river that flows into an estuary and then the ocean. The Maya would have needed to reverse the flow on this river to bring salt water into the lagoon, capture sharks with nets and guide them up the river into the lagoon, and then close off the lagoon. Their experience with public works, using gunpowder blasting, would have given them the engineering capability to carry out this task.

Several names around Laguna Bijagual support the idea of a shark enclosure there. Cara Sucia itself appears to be a Hispanicization of a Ch'orti' name, since it makes little sense in Spanish ("Dirty Face"). In Ch'orti', Cara Sucia is k'ar rah sus si ha', meaning "number of cutters in the retained slack water." "Cutters" is a reference to sharks. "Slack water" gives the impression that the river may have been an estuary up as far as the lagoon at that time, making river flow-reversal irrelevant.

On the other side of the lagoon about three kilometers is the village of El Gulsnay. It appears the name was sounded out when written in Spanish, but in Ch'orti' it would have been k'ul sin neh and means "series of flaps and tails." "Flaps" seem to be a reference to shark dorsal fins. Just west of El Gulsnay is the Rio Quequeishque. This curious name makes a little more sense knowing the Ch'orti' often dropped the 'r' on the syllable ker, which would then be ker ker ix ker, which would mean the slightly redundant "dividing, slashing movements that cut." It seems that the Rio Quequeishque is also referring to sharks. The seasonal Palma River and Quequeishque River meet southwest of the lagoon and may retain the name Quequeishque to the estuary.

Three other local names support the idea of a shark enclosure. A few kilometers upstream from the river that is next to Laguna Bijagual is a place called Irayol, or ir ha' yol. This means "see (them) put in water," which seems to indicate the sharks being placed in the lagoon. About eight kilometers east of the lagoon is a place called Faya, which would be bah yah and means "infected body." This probably refers to someone bit by the sharks. Finally, the Salvadoran border village with Guatemala is Hachadura. It is hach aht tur ha' and means "raised water condition of the bath (lagoon)," and seems to refer to filling the lagoon with ocean water. The Bijagual Lagoon impacted names up to 15 kilometers away.

It seems that the only purpose for the mid-pre-Classic settlement of Cara Sucia in 1200 BCE was to support the engineering of the lagoon and then the maintenance and learning of the sharks in the lagoon. This suggests that the shark enclosure was begun in 1200 BCE or soon thereafter, since that is when Cara Sucia was first settled. The Maya attempted either to befriend or learn from the shark (or both), possibly for several hundred years. The shortfin mako shark is the most common shark around El Salvador and may have been the one enclosed.

Education

There are a couple clues that the pre-Classic Maya around Chalchuapa may have developed a semi-formal education system for their children. One clue is the neighborhood of Amulunga about two kilometers from the Tazumal site. Amulunga is am ul un k'a or "explain desired spider to children." Someone was explaining the usefulness of spiders or the difference between unwanted spiders and desirable spiders.

The second clue is even more direct - about five kilometer southwest of Tazumal into the woods is a village called Zacamil. In Ch'orti' this is sahk k'am mi' il or "kittens useful searching and examining." The syllable mi can describe either cats or kittens but I think kittens is more appropriate here since the name seems to refer to children in an educational setting. Zacamil describes at least part of the Maya educational method: setting up searches for designated items and then examining. It is consistent with the scientific method.

There is evidence that Maya "schools" were set up in many areas. One sees the name Zacamil in several places in El Salvador. There are also Zacamil names in Candelaria, Tepecoyo, San Salvador, and Guazapa. The Zacamil by Candelaria is only 15 kilometers from Chalchuapa, so it is part of the same settlement area. The Zacamil by Tepecoyo is in the balsam range and is not a surprise - the Maya probably maintained a presence there since their first use of balsam sap and wood in about 7800 BCE. The San Salvador Zacamil, a famous insurgent neighborhood in the recent civil war, is further evidence, along with the previously mentioned bird-based names, of a Ch'orti' presence there in the pre-Classic era.

The pre-Classic Maya made major advancement in many fields in the pre-Classic era, as evidenced by the place names in and near Chalchuapa, the main home of the Chol-Ch'orti' elite during the era. These fields include:

gymnastics

meditative movement

massage

zoology, including birds, iguanas, and sharks

education

Given Chalchuapa's role as the base for the Chol-Ch'orti' elite throughout most or all of the pre-Classic period, it and the surrounding area are one of the most important pre-Classic sites throughout Mesoamerica. And Cara Sucia hosted the only known shark retention area, likely for study, of the pre-modern world.

07/07/2013

Cultures around the world have birdman images. The Maya are no exception, including multiple very-stylized images at Palenque, Mexico. This blog post will explore the meaning of the bird-human motif in Maya culture by re-translating inscriptions at Palenque and Quirigua, Guatemala, using Ch'orti', the language closest to that used in Classic era Maya writing. (I would argue that Ch'orti' is the language used in the Classic era.) The inscriptions associate the birdman with eclipses and use a practical style language more fitting for describing human history than mythology.

The inscriptions at Palenque and Quirigua describe events that the Maya dated to between 3147 BCE and 2325 BCE. Because there has been scant record of the Maya prior to 2000 BCE it has been assumed that the events described are mythological. Now that this blog has established a much earlier record for the Maya - the ruins and corn fields of Teotipa, El Salvador, from 8200 to 7836 BCE, the Tiguilotada stone on Isla Tigre, Honduras, which corresponds to astronomical events of 8208 BCE, and the Mars retrograde long count calendar potentially dating back to 8680 BCE - the events described at Palenque and Quirigua and other sites must be reexamined as potentially historical descriptions.

At about the same time as the Maya acquired the ability to track eclipses, confirmed by a solar eclipse in 3122 BCE and a lunar eclipse in 3121 BCE, according to Palenque inscriptions, they began to celebrate eclipses with the bird-human, possibly for the first time in 3113 BCE. Whether the bird-human celebration was done with a costume to commemorate a bird deity or was done with a flying suit where the Maya actually glided is difficult to show.

There is no known archeological evidence for gliding. The best evidence may be the
text, the poetry, of the inscriptions themselves. The longest
inscription is at Palenque, translated here, but there are shorter ones
at Quirigua, as presented here, and at Tila and on the "vase of the
seven gods" (Naranjo), which are not presented here.

Palenque lies in the northern part of Chiapas state in Mexico. It is one of the westernmost Maya sites and, somewhat similar to Copan, is known for its fine architecture, art, and waterworks. In my study of Mayan ruler accession dates, Palenque stood out for having no Jupiter conjunctions at the time of its known accession dates. The Temple of the Cross may have more inscriptions regarding Maya history before 2000 BCE than any other Maya structure. Here's the translation, first, of the eclipses at about the time of the calendar turning over in 3114 BCE. This is from Understanding Maya Inscriptions, a Hieroglyph Handbook, 2nd Rev. Ed., John F Harris and Stephen K. Stearns.

Maya

English

8 Ahchuk (Ahaw) 18 Sek

12.19.13.4.0 (Aug 22, 3121 BCE)

Sihi He(rme)na(t') Sak

Search at the time of the distant white shadow

8.5.0 sihi

And the search 8.5.0 (2980 days) before

iwal u (?) 4 Ahchuk 8 Kumk'u

the cliff opening on 13.0.0.0.0 (April 28, 3114 BCE)

homi 13 bak'tuns

at the end of 13 baktuns

The Palenque inscriptions begin with a date of August 22, 3121 BCE (using correlation 584178), about six years and eight months before the calendar turned over in 3114 BCE. A search was made for a distant white shadow - an eclipse. The Maya had developed a methodology not only to time eclipses but to also predict their location.

The third and fourth lines go together. The third line says that there was another search 8.5.0 or 2980 days before the calendar turning over on 13.0.0.0.0 (April 28, 3114 BCE). This would be a Mayan date of 12.19.11.13.0 (previous cycle) or March 1, 3122 BCE, which would have been a new moon, according to the Solex astronomy program. An eclipse on this day would have been a solar eclipse. There are 540 days between March 1, 3122 and August 22, 3121 BCE. This is two complete tzolk'in cycles plus 20 days. They both took place on Ahchuk (Ahaw) day. This helps explain how the Maya tracked eclipses at this time. (Most likely they alternated between 500 and 540 days. Three eclipse seasons are equal to about 520 days - two tzolk'ins.)

The two eclipses were in the same geographic tzolk'in zone, which basically are zones that cover 1/3 of the earth's longitude that each correspond to one of three specific zones of the tzolk'in. This introduction clearly places the remainder of the story in the context of searching for eclipses. And it may imply that the fourth sun calendar was turned over in 3114 BCE because it was at that time that the Maya figured out how to track eclipses.

Maya

English

(Since) 1.9.2

1.9.2 after 13.0.0.0.0 or October 21, 3113 BCE

halihi k'o b(a)

Weaving the body of the bird beak

k'a chan yax ux tun nal

happiness in the sky, first three stones in the distance

och ta(n) chan

entered the sky of the interior

in nal y(e) tzuk

first ? in the old distant place

13 Ik' 20 Mol

1.9.2.0.0 or October 21, 3113 BCE

hoy wakah chan nal

Beginning of being full of pleasure in a distant sky

waxik na tzuk

Eight vanishing old ones

uk'aba ch'ul

his happy hanging body / his sacred name

yotot xaman

North House

The above section of inscription represents a second introduction and links eclipse event to the bird weave - hanging events. After establishing the date of October 21, 3113 BCE, the passage directly speaks of weaving a bird body. Since the Maya believed that a falcon or falcon human rose in the sky to eat the sun or moon at the time of the eclipse, it is clear that they established a bird-human custom at eclipse time in 3113 BCE. Either they dressed up in the bird suit at eclipse time or they actually tried to glide in the bird suit.

The next line should clear things up - they were gliding - "happiness in the sky". Or this is a story about some deities who were gliding. However it has been my experience that the Maya do not speak of deities in this way. It is clear that the events mentioned took place in a distant location. A similar passage of this same event is recorded at Quirigua and gives clues about the location but it is not my purpose at this time to discuss the location. A later line is similar: "beginning of being full of pleasure in a distant sky." The sentiment here again leans toward an understanding that the Maya were gliding.

The phrase "first three stones in the distance" is referring to either the place mentioned above or to three stones used with the bird man suit: each hand grasping one and the third perhaps placed in the mouth.

The phrase "first ? in the old distant place" probably refers to an eclipse series - such as, first eclipse since the old cycle ended. There is a similar phrase later in the inscription, "eight vanishing old ones", where vanishing likely means an eclipse and 'old ones' appear to be a eclipse series that started in the old time, i.e. before 3114 BCE. A date is given of 1.9.2.0.0 or October 21, 3113 BCE using the 584178 correlation. This date was 37 days before a full moon lunar eclipse on November 27, 3113 BCE. It also was about 135 days after a prior eclipse season. The Nov. 27 lunar eclipse was in a different geographic tzolk'in zone from the ones mentioned earlier in 3122 and 3121 BCE. Those were in a visibility zone that most likely corresponds to the Americas, which would mean that the 3113 BCE eclipse was in the Africa-Middle East-South Asia visibility zone. It also could be that in 3113 BCE the Maya had not yet associated the bird-human ceremony with eclipses.

The Ch'orti' phrase uk'aba ch'ul is interesting because it has two meanings which any Mayan would have understood. In a more literal meaning it is "his happy hanging body" while a more spiritual meaning is "his sacred name". Given the earlier lines about happiness in the sky, the hanging body seems without a doubt to be referring to someone (person or deity) hang gliding. The story then skips 750 years ahead.

Maya

English

1.18.3.12.0 (since)

1.18.3.12.0 since the previous story

Petihi wak(a) chan ki(x)

(since) beginning to stack the ordered sky series

in nal ye tzuk

first of the old cycles

iwal hul mata wil

closed light, wrap wings

9 Ik' 15 Keh

On 1.18.5.3.2 (July 6, 2360 BCE)

u ? ka b(a) mata wil

they began to wrap their bodies in wings

u bah u ch'am (w)il sak

they themselves searched and gathered the wings

ox ya ch'ok le(b) na'(t)

sore feet beat, inexperienced knowledge (?)

2.1.7.11.2 sihi

2.1.7.11.2 since search

iwal k'al sak in

the place of the previous withheld white light

tu u bah sak? 9 Ik' 0 Sak

it was agreed upon to go searching for this light on 2.0.0.10.2 (May 23, 2325 BCE)

The next part of the story tells us that about 750 years have gone by, since they started to stack (track) the eclipse series in the sky. On the occasion of the first of the old eclipse ("closed light") series they wrapped themselves in wings. The break of 750 years makes me believe that the bird-human tradition was not continuous - there was a long break before it was reinitiated in 2360 BCE.

They (once again) began to wear the wing suits. They created the wing suits themselves, searching for the best wings, most likely falcon wings. (The falcon is the bird associated with eclipses.) Perhaps they even went to the Andes to gather the Andean falcon wings. The next line, the 8th in this series, is unclear, but ox yah is sore feet. I take this line to mean that their inexperience with how to glide and land led to hard landings and sore feet, beat by the hard earth during landings.

The last three lines move us about 800 years past the time of the first eclipse searches. First they say that it is 2.1.7.11.2 since the (first?) search in the place of the previous eclipse ("withheld white light"). A decision was made in 2325 BCE by the Maya - to search for an eclipse. This suggests that they didn't search for every eclipse - probably logistically impossible, even with multiple teams. Using the date of 2.0.0.10.2 and counting back 2.1.7.11.2 gives a date of September 28, 3147 BCE, 12 Ahchuk, for the first search, 33 years before the calendar turned over. Interestingly, this day is also an Ahchuk (Ahaw) day like the earlier dates in 3122 and 3121 BCE, confirming that they were using this day sign to track eclipses. The next part of the inscription takes us to a tragic event in July of 2360 BCE.

Maya

English

13 Chamer 19 Keh

1.18.5.3.6 (July 10, 2360 BCE)

ahyal sihi k'in ich tah wayib

The young hurler, sun secreting wilted pitch

k'in tan [? headless jaguar]

heat in the interior, death?

ti sak nah(t) sak ba ka nah(m)

distant search, beginning of the search for his vanished body

chan? ahtin k'ak'

the one clinging in the sky; fire (or heat)

k'a ? k'in ich ahchuk k'in

remember sun secreting, the one who observes the sun

1.18.5.3.6 petihi

1.18.5.3.6 since stacking (July 10, 2360 BCE)

wa ka chan ki(li)

Beginning of being the sky falcon

iwal hul mata wil

place of closed light, wrap the wings around himself

u bah u ch'am

that he had gathered himself

he(l) m(e)n al na(t) sak

the time of the similar shadow, the distant search

ch'ul ahchuk

sacred hanging observant lord

9.12.18.5.16 halihi k'ob

9.12.18.5.16 since weaving a bird beak body (April 7, 690 CE)

k'a chan yax ux tun na(t)

remembering in the sky first three stones in the distance

4 Ahchuk 8 Kumk'u

13.0.0.0.0 (April 28, 3114 BCE)

This event takes place four days after the re-initiation of the bird-human tradition on July 6, 2360 BCE, recounted above. The story begins with ahyal or "the one who hurls", which easily could describe someone jumping off a ledge with a bird suit. It then describes the sun wilting (melting) the pitch (glue), causing it to secrete. The next line has an unknown glyph, a headless jaguar. Perhaps it describes a death, a death that took place in the heat of the interior. Then there is a search for his body in a distant place. The search for the one who had been clinging up in the sky in the heat.

The sixth line has two or three meanings (at least). On the one hand it is a warning to remember the hot sun which can melt, to be observant of the sun. A second meaning is to remember flower day, Ahchuk day. Flower day - Xochitl in Aztec - is the same as Ahchuk (Ahaw) day in the tzolk'in. Ahchuk was the day associated with tracking eclipses, at least in 3100 BCE. A third possible meaning is more pious "Remember flower sun, lord sun."

The inscription then begins a second poetic re-telling of the July 10, 2360 BCE event in an effort to honor the fallen one who died that day. First it links him to the beginning of the sky falcon tradition, the bird associated with eclipses. It locates the sky falcon at the place of closed light (an eclipse). It says that the sky falcon had wrapped wings around himself, wings that he himself had gathered.

Then it uses the phrase "similar shadow" to make it clear that they were tracking eclipses in different series, much like the modern Saros series. And it places the search for the eclipse in a distant place, i.e. not Central America. The next phrase ch'ul ahchuk has a double meaning which I included in the translation - it could mean "observe while hanging" or it could mean "sacred lord". I think both are meant.

The last three lines above (although the inscription continues) link the time current when the inscriptions were made - 690 CE - with the tradition of the three stones in the sky that began on or about 13.0.0.0.0 (April 28, 3114 BCE). Next we move to another temple at Palenque, which uses very similar language as the Temple of the Cross.

Temple of the Foliated Cross, Palenque

Maya

English

1 Ahchuk 13 Mak

1.18.5.4.0 (July 24, 2360 BCE)

u ux tal sihi

Their third arrival searching

tzuk chak ch'a(t) k'a wi(l) al winik

remembering the time of the previous two winged men at the red opening

ux ahal ch'ul

the third time for hanging

ch'ok k'a wi(l) al

remembering the first times of the wing

The opening lines of Palenque's Temple of the Foliated Cross are very revealing. It begins with a third date in July 2360 BCE and it tells us that it is their third time of arriving somewhere to search (for an eclipse). This tells us that the other two dates in July 2360 BCE (already mentioned) were stops or arrivals at places as they were tracing the path of the same eclipse. Based on the 3122 BCE eclipse date mentioned above, we know that there was a June 2 solar eclipse and a June 16 lunar eclipse in 2360 BCE so the Maya were likely searching for the path of one of those eclipses.

The Maya did not know exactly where the eclipses would take place but they got close and would travel by ocean, river, or land to trace its path, doing multiple ceremonies along the long path of eclipse. The bird-human ceremonies did not necessarily take place on the day of the eclipse but often in the months that followed.

The third line memorializes the two previous bird-humans (or bird-deities), at least one of whom died in the ceremony. The red opening is another way of saying eclipse, most likely referring to the solar eclipse, marked by its red tones. July 24, 2360 BCE was the third time in 2360 for the hanging (bird-human) ceremony. The Temple of the Foliated Cross then moves forward about 35 years to 2326 BCE.

Maya

English

iwal homi ka pih

place of light completed two bak'tuns (2.0.0.0.0)

2 Ahchuk 3 Wayeb

November 3, 2326 BCE

utzak ch'ul he(l) men al na(t) sak

He urged to go hang and search distantly at the time of the shadow.

ch'ul mata wil ahchuck

wrap around wings, hanging observer, sacred lord

u ti yax hal

his first clinging to the weaving

witz sak nik

shaking at the white mountain

yinal nat(e) k'an al

time of distant fondness

The next part of the inscription of the Temple of the Foliated Cross begins by establishing a date of 2.0.0.0.0 - November 3, 2326 BCE. This could be an exact date or meant to indicate an era. A date of 2 Ahchuk was in a tzolk'in eclipse zone at that time. I believe that 2.0.0.0.0 was an approximate date and that the date of 2.0.0.10.2 (May 23, 2325 BCE), mentioned above at the Temple of the Cross, is the more precise date for this event. The tradition of searching for eclipses and doing the bird-human ceremony began in 3113 BCE, possibly renewed in 2360 BCE, so this passage is not about a beginning event but about a special event.

As before it happened at a time of an eclipse and involved weaving a bird body and wrapping around wings. Then the key line in the passage: witz sak nik - shaking at the white mountain. On this occasion the bird-human ceremony and the bird-human gliding, if you are so inclined to believe that, happened at the summit of a white (snowy) mountain. It was so exhilarating that the bird-human was shaking. It was a time of enjoyment or fondness somewhere in the distance. In a later writing I will name and describe this distant place.

Palenque is not the only site that talks about the bird-human ceremony. Quirigua provides a good description of the bird man suit.

Quirigua is a site in eastern Guatemala along the Motagua River. It is often thought of as a sister site to Copan, which it then defeated in 738 CE. It has the tallest stela anywhere in the Mayan world and is near the only source of jade in Mesoamerica. Stela C at Quirigua has the most descriptive language about the details of the bird-human weave. This passage goes back to 3114 BCE when the first bird-human ceremony took place in a distant place. Palenque inscriptions say the ceremony actually took place in 3113 BCE.

Maya

English

13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahchuk 8 Kumk'u

April 28, 3114 BCE

hala k'o ba

weaving the bird beak body

k'ala ux tun

hold onto three stones

u tz'a pa

his body over the wetness

tun (jaguar paddler, stingray paddler)

stones at the bow and stern

u tin(a) ho chan

he was clinging to the five in the sky

hix tz'am tun

movement over the moisture stone

u tz'a pa tun

his body over water and stone

ek' na(m) yax

disappearing down for the first time

uti ka b(ir) chan tz'am tun

the beginning of when they made a path in the sky over water and stone

iwal ut k'al tun

place of opening in the cliff, holding onto the stones

na(t) itzam hi(n)

distant place of dampness shed

nab tz'am ? tun

water and stone that have passed out of memory

uti k'a chan

where they were happy in the sky

yax ux tan na(t)

first time three stones in the distance

homi uxlahun pih

13 baktuns ended

u kahi wa k(a) chan ahchuk

it began: the beginning of being sky lords

The Quirigua stela is less precise in its dates for the first bird-human event, using the turn of the calendar on April 28, 3114 BCE as a general time frame, rather than the precise October 21, 3113 BCE date used at Palenque. Like Palenque, Stela C talks about weaving the bird beak body but then uses a different phrase k'ala ux tun when mentioning the three stones. It means "hold onto three stones." One can imagine the arms spread wide each grasping a stone acting as a hub for a section of wings. The third stone would have been at the chest or, less likely, placed in the mouth.

The bird-human glided over water - either a lake, a river, or a marsh. Next are glyphs with the word "stone(s)", then the jaguar paddler and the stingray paddler. The jaguar paddler is always at the front of the boat and the stingray paddler at the rear. So I take their meaning here to be bow and stern - one stone above the bird-human's head and another stone by his/her feet. The stone at the chest would have connected the two axis. The next line confirms this interpretation - the bird-human is clinging to the five stones - three across, one bow, one stern - up in the sky.

The next few lines are beautiful poetry when spoken in Ch'orti'. The English meaning of the seventh line from the top is somewhat obscure. Movement would be ix rather than hix. And moisture stone is unclear - it is most likely referring to a specific place name where this took place. The stela describes the dangers - being over water and stone, as (s)he descends for the first time. It was the beginning of making a sky path. This line could also be translated "wet stone held in the mouth in the sky", making the case for the center stone to be placed in the mouth. But this interpretation doesn't fit the poetry as well.

The following line goes back to before the gliding of the bird-human to a location at a cliff. The next lines tell us that it was a distant place which had passed out of memory by the time that the Quirigua inscriptions were made. They had forgotten the exact place where they were first happy in the sky but not that they had become sky lords (literally "sky observers") (soon after) 13 baktuns had ended in 3114 BCE.

A collaborating bit of evidence is the Mayan day sign Ahmok (Cib), which has a double meaning. On one hand it means "the sick one". On the other hand, as ahmo' it means "the
bird one". This meaning is confirmed by the Aztec, where this day sign means vulture or falcon.

Finally, through place names I have located a place where the Maya appear to have practiced the bird-human. Matamaras is the name of a cave near San Fernando, Chalatenango, El Salvador. It is in a very mountainous area about 50 kilometers from Igualtepec, which is where the Ch'orti' were living in 3114 BCE. The cave is located near the old colonial village of Mataras. Mataras in Ch'orti' means "time of practicing the wrap around". Matamaras means "time of practicing the wrap around in the interior". There are many mountains and small cliffs in the San Fernando area.

Representation of the Aztec (Mexica) god Huitzilopochtli, from the recto of the folio 5 of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis (16th century).

Conclusions and Implications

The Maya began tracking the eclipse cycles by 3147 BCE, if not earlier. They were tracking both the timing and the location of the eclipses. The eclipses of 3122 and 3121 BCE were critical in finalizing and confirming the eclipse cycle methodology, preparing the way for the new calendar to start in 3114 BCE. Importantly, the period from 3147 to 3114 BCE would be within the lifespan of one generation.

The Maya bird-human tradition began in 3113 BCE, soon after the turning over of the calendar, in a distant place, called Itzamna(t), that included a cliff, stones, and water. The bird-human ceremony would take place in the location of each eclipse (or each significant eclipse), in the weeks following the eclipse. (Most likely only solar eclipses.) The bird-human suit included wings gathered by the bird-human and five stones - one for each hand, one in the center, one at the crown of the head, and one at the feet.

Possibly the bird-human ceremony was discontinued from 3113 BCE to 2360 BCE. In any case, the bird-human ceremony gained new significance following an eclipse in 2360 BCE. The Maya made three stops in their search for the eclipse path. (The arc of an eclipse can span hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometers.) The bird-humans seem inexperienced - they hurt their feet with their bad landings and one plummets to an unfortunate end when the pitch or glue used to attach the wings melts in the hot sun. By the third stop the bird-humans succeed, which may have renewed or re-invigorated the bird-human ceremony.

One other significant event is recorded with the bird-human ceremony, in November 2326 BCE, or possibly May 2325 BCE, in a distant place on a snowy mountain that caused the bird-human to shake.

Many of the so-called Mayan gods, such as Itzamna, Kawil, G1, G2, and G3, are simply descriptions of places or events. They are meant to be historical not mythological, if one can make that distinction. It is possible that other "gods" are not gods at all. They should be re-examined using Ch'orti' as the primary translating language.

Generally, some of the inscriptions at various Maya sites are likely mistranslated because they use a Mayan language other than Ch'orti'. Genealogies and accession events are straight forward but other Classic-era inscriptions should be re-translated using Ch'orti', the language of the ancients and the one used at the Classic-era sites.

For the moment we don't know of the overlap between this Mayan story and that of Icarus. There are some parallels. More on that at a later time.

It is impossible to know if the Maya actually glided. Are they describing a mythological person who glided or actual persons? The language used - of grabbing on to the stones, being happy in the sky, and of sore feet - is human, but they could be giving human qualities to a mythological person. Yet, the sophistication of the bird suit, with two axis and five stones (or hubs), seems to go beyond a suit that would be worn for ceremonial purposes only. At the least, traveling the world to track the path of eclipses over thousands of miles and for a time period of thousands of years and incorporating a bird-human ceremony, is a very impressive feat.

Thor Heyerdahl, in Early Man and the Ocean, provides a drawing of a potential log raft design:

The rafts would have been made with a rather buoyant wood, but the size of the logs was also important. The logs would have been repeatedly coated in a resin to make them more water resistant. From early Spanish accounts Heyerdahl calls the rafts jangadas and mentioned the importance of the centerboard, called guara.

Both of these words are significant in Ch'orti' and it's likely that they were retained cultural words from the time before Ch'orti' and proto-Andean separated. Jangada is chan (snake) + k'aht (anything laid across) in Ch'orti'. "Snake laid across" refers to the latticing or bindings that tied the logs together and likely refers to the last component of the raft to be perfected in Asia before the initial journey across. The reference to snake helps explain the prevalence of serpent symbolism in Mayan culture. "Snake latticing" produces a curious parallel to b'ahram, the word for tame jaguar, which means "spider latticing", referring to the weave of the jaguar cage. Guara, the centerboards, is wa'ar in Ch'orti' and means "standing" or "perpendicular".

The Maya likely had a much harder ocean trip on the raft until they discovered and were able to produce rafts out of Peru Balsam (myroxylon). Heyerdahl placed the balsam forests in Ecuador. While it is likely true that the Maya helped their Andean cousins to transplant a
balsam forest there, the Peru Balsam is uniquely native to El Salvador. It lives in upland areas of 800 to 1,300 meters in the departments of Sonsonate and La Libertad. This is located only about 20 kilometers from Lago Coatepeque, one of the four island homes of the early Mayan/Mesoamerican people.

While the Maya likely discovered the balsam prior to their defeat of Xibalbha in about 7500 BCE, they could not produce rafts without putting themselves at extreme risk of the Xibalbhans. With no threat from Xibalba, the Maya could move forward with full-scale raft production. What is most noticeable about the balsam is the sap. They most likely tried to light it to use as an incense or charcoal, as well as to rub onto canoes and rafts.

At some point the Maya were able to get a balsam log into standing water - not so easy from the steep Cordillera de Balsam. They noticed four things about the balsam that make it the best tree in the Americas for ocean-going rafts and perhaps the best in the world:

The size of the logs both in terms of width and length - the trees grow 40 meters tall;

The straightness of the trunk;

The resin-laden wood which makes it extremely resistant to water, including salt water;

The buoyancy of the wood.

The Maya quickly noticed the buoyancy. The balsam is named for "wet latticing" (par + tz'am or tz'ah). And it has a second meaning of "get rid of weight" referring to its buoyancy (bar + s'at).

The U.S. National Forest Service rates the qualities of various trees, including their buoyancy. Of 156 rated trees only three have a specific gravity or buoyancy greater than the peru balsam, which is rated 81 and 74 (green). These are the southern live oak, the osage orange, and the mesquite. The former is too twisted to be used in a raft while the latter two are too small to use in raft production.

The geography of the Balsam Range and the surrounding area made it hard
for the Maya to harvest balsam logs and produce balsam rafts. There are rivers on the south side of ridge top that go directly to the ocean. However after a rain the current is strong and there is no place to catch the logs coming down. They would go directly into the ocean. On the north side of the ridge top there are several creeks, like the Talnique, the Shutia, the Cashal, and the Apalata. These all flow into the Sucio River which then flows north to meet the Lempa River, which flows northeast then south to the ocean. The Sucio is rather flat so it is a good place to catch the loose logs and assemble them into flotillas to make the trip to the mouth of the Lempa River, where the community of Tehuacan was waiting to construct the rafts.

The
creeks in the Cordillera del Bálsamo are primarily seasonal. Without rain they have little flow, like the Shutia at right. This means that harvesting of the balsam logs would only take place in the rainy season and only after a heavy rain could they send the logs down the creeks. A local person told me that the Shutia would rise one meter or more after a heavy rain. Yet I'm sure that someone had to run alongside the logs with a pole to try to dislodge any logjams.

Let's look at some of the local place names which will confirm the balsam production in this areas:

Apalata (a creek near Jayaque):

ab - swinging container, hammocklaht' - anything carriedha' - water

I think this refers to a sling placed under the front end of a log with a person on each side to guide the log through a tight place.

Jayaque - town near top of Balsam ridge

ha' - waterak' - covering, object resting on another

I understand this to mean "logjam over the water".

Sucio (watershed of the north side of Balsam Range)

susi - smooth down, cut, trim

The balsam logs were cut and trimmed on the flatter Rio Susi (Sucio) near the later San Andres structure. From there they were bound temporarily and were guided down the Rio Susi (Sucio) by a pilot with a pole
to the Lempa River and then down the Lempa many days to the lower Lempa near Tehuacan where the logs were taken out and reassembled into a raft with a sail, and slots for centerboards. In many cases there was cargo stored on either the Usulutan or San Vicente side of the Lempa ready to go. For example, the name of Tecoluca, the municipality on the western (San Vicente) side of the Lempa:

te' - trees, sticksk'or - transportuh - sacredkah - beginning

So Tecoluca is "beginning of the sacred log transport" referring to rafts that were assembled there.

Returning to the Rio Susi, the nearby archeological site San Andres is likely a memorial to the balsam log workers who live there part of the year, captured the loose logs, bound them and guided them down the river. This is evidenced by the indigenous name for San Andres, Tecpan. The Wisdom Ch'orti' dictionary says that tecpan means Catholic church and plaza and that it came from Nahua. It is the other way around. When the Maya needed a word for Catholic church they thought of their model for a plaza and thought of
Tecpan (San Andres). The meaning of Tecpan is clear:

te' - tree(s)ek' - downpan - loose, sprout

Tecpan means "loose trees coming down" (from the Balsam Range). This would seem to indicate that San Andres may have been one of the first structures. Previously we discussed how it forms a line with Tazumal at Chalchuapa, where the Siete Principes site at the base of Lago Coatepeque is at the half-way point.

Even when geography proved to be difficult the Maya found a way to move forward. They found and assembled the logs which would allow them to sail long and far in the oceans, just as Thor Heyerdahl suspected of the indigenous in the Americas.

01/19/2013

In terms of longevity, Igualtepec or Igualtepeque, El Salvador, is one of the most important Mayan sites. It was the lead Mayan site from about 7200 BCE to perhaps 1800 BCE when leadership was moved to Chalchuapa and Siete Principes in El Salvador, to coastal sites in Guatemala, Chiapas, and Belize, and a little later to Mirador in northern Guatemala.

While most of the focus on Igualtepec is of the spectacular petroglyphs and rightly so, it takes away from the coordinating role that Igualtepec played among the four Mayan lineages, such as coordinating the four-site gatherings near the Lempa-Sumpul confluence at a place they called Arcatao, and being the long-term base from which the Maya traveled ocean
waters. From Igualtepec (right) the Maya could travel by canoe to the Pacific Ocean, by way of the Lempa River. At the lower Lempa they would assemble rafts or sailboats for ocean travel. The original name for the Lempa is Lumpa. Lempa is a later Lenca change to the river's name. Lumpa means "land of food" or Land of Food River.

Wa'ar implies standing up but not in a natural way. There is generally no reason to describe a tree as standing up; it is understood. I understand this to mean that after the mudslide many trees and branches were sticking up like matchsticks in many different directions on the rounded knob of a hill that is Igualtepec. To clarify, in Lenca and Nahuat languages the Ch'orti' 'w' usually becomes a 'gü' sound. It's possible that the last syllable was an addition of the Nahua ("Pipil"), as there was a tendency to add pec and peque onto existing place names.

The Popol Vuh lists the places in order, as the Maya moved from one to the next place:

I interpret this as "swimming domesticated animal resting on an
object." Today Central Americans usually use the same verb for bathing
or rinsing as for swimming or wading. The significance of this name is
that some of the domesticated animals from Teotipa survived the flood
and floated on flotsam to Igualtepec, which is downwind from Teotipa.
The domesticated animals could have included parrots, jaguars, and
pumas, which were first domesticated at Isla Tigre, or dogs, monkeys,
and other birds.

It appears that the desire to resettle Igualtepec made a definitive
resolution of the conflict with the Xibalbhans that much more urgent. The Xibalbhans were a distinct group of humans who were much taller than the Maya and who captured the Mayan ancestors soon after their raft arrival from South America and held them at the Corinto Cave. At
Teotipa the Maya were safe because the Xibalbhans were afraid of water.
While Igualtepec is at times an island too, it would have been much easier for the Xibalbhans to
approach from
the east. It is a small island and their fields on the
lake side hills, like the one at right, would have been exposed to their
enemy. With a presence at Igualtepec, the Maya would not have been safe
with the Xibalbhans still at Corinto Cave (and likely Tecapa
volcano as well). It is likely that the Xibalbhans approached all four lineage settlement and harassed with the intent to
attack people. Thus at both Teotipa and Igualtepec, the Maya still needed to
use the Ahwilix "the woman's wing". The ahwilix was a
baby raft which was used by women to protect children from the
Xibalbhans. Ahwilix was one of the three gifts from the spirits that the Maya received in the wilderness when they first arrived in El Salvador. I
believe that the final action against the Xibalbhans took place after
the flood but just before the settlement of Igualtepec.

The Popol Vuh tells us that there were two survivors of the flood, one man, one woman. The Teotipa survivors moved to Teopan at Lago Coatepeque, married each other, and a few generations later their nine offspring were ready to move back to Lago Güija.

One of the first leaders of Q'umaraq aj was Q'ukumatz, according to the Popol Vuh. This name indicates that Igualtepec continued to be a place of agricultural production and innovation, just like Teotipa:

K'uhk' - a shoot, sproutKum - egg, seedMax - hole, cavity

Q'ukumatz means "Sprout from a Seed in a Hole" and could refer to an early leader(s) who planted corn, squash, beans or another plant. While corn was first hybridized at Teotipa, the greatest transformation in corn, from small cobs with hard kernels to large cobs with much softer kernels took place at Igualtepec between first settlement and 1800 BCE. In fact I think it was the transformation of corn and the discovery of nixtamalization, most likely at Igualtepec, that informed the Maya that it was time to greatly expand. Without a doubt these two developments greatly increased population.

Comprehensive archeological work is need at Igualtepec. The ancient petroglyphs are a supporting piece of evidence for Igualtepec being a long-term Mayan center, as they were produced at different periods of time, including some quite ancient, according
to archeological art history professor Andrea Stone. The amount of obsidian at the site is remarkable. There are also many carved and semi-carved stones laying on the ground, like the jaguar stone here. It is very possible that the Popol Vuh was first written here at Igualtepec. It means:

Pohp - sedge, mat of sedge barkBuy - a cutting (into pieces)

So Popol Vuh means "mat of sedge bark cut into pieces" and indicates how writing was first done.

Until today the Ch'orti's maintain a memorial for those who were killed by the Lago Güija flood and tzuhnami at Teotipa: the petroglyphs directly facing Teotipa. The stones are about three to five meters above the August 2012 level of the lake and indicate the historic levels of the lake. A high level of art was produced in the petroglyphs in order to have a memorial worthy of those who died. The petroglyphs, which face Teotipa, were likely the site of frequent vigils and ceremonies, including an annual one, a Day of the Dead, on November 1 (41 days past equinox) which appears to be the date of the flood.

Photo Gallery (click to enlarge)

Don Magdaleno looks over Igualtepec and its cultural artifacts. A modern day hero.

Some of the many metates - grinding stones - found there. There was another pile of hand stones.

Don "Leno" has also found many smaller stone and ceramic pieces:

Petroglyphs:

This glyph appears to be a swimmer, depicting the man surviving the tzuhnami who dived back in the water to rescue the lone surviving woman.

This boy playfully placed his hat in the photo.

Two of the Igualtepec stones are at the municipal seat of Metapan, where they have been painted.

The figure at the bottom of this stone is nearly identical to one found on Estrechura Island in Lago Olomega.

Igualtepec, right, is a peninsula, sometimes island, on the southeast shore of Lago Güija. It is known for the ancient carved stones on its western shore. It is also an ancient Mayan archeological site. Its name preserves a hint of its formation by powerful forces. It is a Ch'orti' name, glossed over by Nahua:

Or "place of the knob with stood up trees". The 'r' and 'l' in wa'ar would have been interchangeable. These are not ordinary trees, they were made to stand up or be perpendicular - standing up like matchsticks out of the knob.

The current day residents around Lago Güija say that there is a hidden city below the lake, according to University of El Salvador professor Vicente Ginovez. As I learned many times in El Salvador, there is a reason for every bit of oral history. Another bit of oral history that I was told in August 2012 is that the lake was formed a long time ago by a volcanic eruption. These are important clues to what happened at the lake.

The next clue is the historic lake levels at Güija which are about 3 meters higher than the level when I visited in August 2012. This is evident from the carved stones at Igualtepec where the historic lake level is clear. The rocks that were carved are those 3 to 5 meters vertically above the 2012 lake level even though there are similar (uncarved) stones at or just above the 2012 lake level. This indicates that what occurred at the lake was not just a flood but a structural change to the lake that left lake levels higher.

Some of the carved stones at the lowest
level at Igualtepec show historic water levels. These may be among the earliest of all the images. The one at right appears more primitive than many of the others, with a face of a person.

Before making a guess about what happened during the flood event, I turn to the Popol Vuh account of the flood, which appears near the beginning of the Popol Vuh.

Again there comes a humiliation, destruction, and demolition. The manikins, woodcarvings were killed when the Heart of Sky devised a flood for them. A great flood was made; it came down on the heads of the manikins, woodcarvings. The man's body was carved from the wood of the coral tree by the Maker, Modeler. And as for the woman, the Maker, Modeler needed the hearts of bulrushes for the woman's body. (Popol Vuh, Tedlock translation, 1996, pp 71-72)

and,

There came Crunching Jaguar: he ate their flesh. There came Tearing Jaguar: he tore them open.

and,

There came a rain of resin from the sky. ... The earth was blackened because of this; the black rainstorm began, rain all day and rain all night.

and,

Everything spoke: their water jars, their tortilla griddles, their plates, their cooking pots, their dogs, their grinding stones, each and every thing crushed their faces. Their dogs and turkeys told them: "You caused us pain, you ate us, but now it is you whom we shall eat."

and,

Now they run for it, helter-skelter. They want to climb up on the houses, but they fall as the houses collapse. They want to climb the trees; they're thrown off by the trees.

The reference to manikins and woodcarvings is clearly a reference to the Xibalbhan people at Corinto cave who are referred to elsewhere with the same descriptors. I have mentioned previously that manikin means "Manik sticks" and that Manik is the name of the exceptionally tall hunter people of the north who settled at Corinto cave and captured the Mayan ancestors in about 8700 BCE. But the Manik people were clearly not at Lago Guija and were not destroyed by the flood. I think this confused reference occurred because the Maya destroyed the Manik people nearly immediately following the flood, thus associating the two events.

The reference to Heart of Sky is not a deity but more of a karmic reality. This name is Uk'ux kaj and when translated in Ch'orti' is:

So it means "sad coming to life of the start" or "sad start of the coming to life".

The resin from the sky would seem to be a combination of heavy rain the ash from a volcanic explosion. The volcano nearest the lake is Cerro San Diego, to the left in the photo, taken from Teotipa. Igualtepec is on the right of the photo at lake level. Based on all of the above evidence, I am proposing that there was a major rainstorm, followed by an eruption of Cerro San Diego. The flow of lava over the rain-soaked soil on the skirts of the volcano led to massive landslides. The landslides formed the Igualtepec hill, the neighboring island of Tule, and blocked the exit river of the lake. To the north a separate landslide may have separated the Laguna de Metapán from the lake.

The landslides into the lake would have caused a tsunami. This tsunami would have overtaken the low-lying Teotipa in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. Tsunami is most likely a Mayan word, shared with the Japanese, which likely had its origin in this flood event at Güija more than 9,000 years ago:

tzuh : a pressing downnami : to vanish, to hide, to put out of sight

The churning of a tsunami wave explains why it felt to a survivor that every object in the house - the tortilla griddle, the grinding stone, the dog, the turkey - was coming at them and gnashing their mouth and face.

They tried to run, to grab onto the house roofs. Those that survived likely swam to the surface after the wave passed, grabbed onto the thatch of the roofs, and swam/paddled to a shore after many hours or days. The Popul Vuh suggests that the man(men) grabbed on to coral wood to make it, while the woman(women) grabbed bulrushes or thatch to make it across the lake. While Tedlock assigns a deity here - "Maker, Modeler" - the most likely Ch'orti' translation for tz'aqol b'itol is "bundled and transported to the crest."

Bodies began to arrive on shore, bloated like ghouls, some stripped to the skeleton by fish. I believe that the eruption and tsunami occurred on November 1 - 41 days after the fall (rainy season) equinox and that is why the Day of the Dead is celebrated at this time. In
addition, the six month anniversary is celebrated in early May, which is why there are processions with palm thatch - palm thatch being what helped the survivors - in El Salvador in early May, like the somber one at left from Planes de Rendero.

The timing of November 1 (equinox plus 41 days) would not have been lost on the ancient Maya as that was the exact date of the anniversary of the Third Sun on November 1, 8207 BCE, most likely celebrated as New Year by the Maya. The Maya would have seen this disaster as punishment for not following the ways of the Third Sun sufficiently - the seven bows to the east, the fasting, and the burning of three incenses. Certainly it changed the calendar and may have led to a different new year date at some point.

It was a long time ago when they all came up onto their citadel, building a score and four palaces there in the citadel of Q'umaraq aj.

... They achieved glory there. ... One by one they took their places:

The nine lords of the Cauecs.

The nine lords of the Greathouses.

The four lords of the Lord Quiches.

The two lords of the Zaquics. (Tedlock, pg 184)

While the 24 lords could refer to 24 heads of household, each with a house (palace), I am inclined to believe that it is 24 people total. The Cauecs would refer to the Quiche and indicated that 9 people (lords) moved from Teopan to Igualtepec. The Greathouses refer to the Ak'bar (Ch'orti') lineage originally at Teotipa, so there were 9 people from a later generation of the surviving Ch'orti' lineage who moved back from Teopan to Igualtepec for the repopulation. The Lord Quiches is a generic reference, equivalent to "Mayan lords" and, by process of elimination, would refer to the Olmec/Lenca lineage, so that four people from Lago Olomega moved to Igualtepec. Finally the Zaquics refer to the Ik' lineage, the Zapotec ancestors at Tehuacan, at the mouth of the Lempa. Two people from this lineage made the move.

After some amount of years, the landslide-formed crest of land that was Igualtepec, with its perpendicular trees,
was prepared for settlement. With these 24 seed people Igualtepec became a great Mayan center. One of the first tasks to prepare Igualtepec for settlement may have been to clear a channel for the water to leave the lake. The exit river out of the lake appears to be hand dug like a canal.

Here's another view of the exit river just as it is leaving the lake. This would need to be explored more.

The new settlers at Igualtepec appear to have begun a tradition at the time of a death. The dead person's body was placed on a boat and taken across the lake and in the water just above the site of Teotipa their body was laid to rest, joining the ancestors who died there in the
November 1 tsunami.In fact they built a boat ramp of specially selected smooth stones next to Teotipa which would allow a boat to dock at various depths of the lake, depending on the rain. (The modern monument at the top of the photo seems out of place next to the thousands of years old stone ramp in the foreground.) The dead were taken across the lake by the boatman not so much to the underworld as to their ancestors who lived and died at the ancient village of Teotipa buried under several feet of water. This is where the ritual started and the source of the image of the boatman ferrying the dead across the lake.

Igualtepec is famous for its carved stones. More will be shown in my next blog entry. The stones have been catalogued and analyzed. There are many animals, like the monkey and the parrot on this stone. It seems clear that the stones are a memorial for the ancestors lost, the victims of the tsunami disaster at Teotipa. And a memorial for the pets, including monkeys and parrots, that died in the tsunami as
well. The stones are on the west-northwest point of the Igualtepec peninsula, directly facing Teotipa as one looks out toward the lake. In the photo the trees of the taller part of the Teotipa island can be seen on the right and the village site of Teotipa is just left of center. Ironically, the carved stones of Igualtepec were the leading edge of the mudslide that created Igualtepec and created the tsunami that wiped out Teotipa.

Finally, there is the name for Igualtepec in the Popol Vuh: Q'umaraq aj. It is translated as Rotten Cane by Tedlock. It is the place that the Maya went to following Chi ismachi (Teotipa). In Ch'orti' the translation is:

So it means "washed domesticated animal(s) resting on an object". Washed here referring to a long swim from Teotipa to Igualtepec. Apparently one or more domesticated animals survived the tsunami and made it to shore at Igualtepec by resting on wood or thatch.

The commemoration of this event as the Day of the Dead helps to provide a date for the flood. The word for Day of the Dead in Ch'orti' is sik'in, which literally means "series of days". But more importantly sik'in is a near equivalent of the Ch'orti' day sign Tzi'k'in, which means "day count". They choose the name sik'in for Day of the Dead because it sounds like Tzi'k'in, or 2 Tz'ik'in the period in the Mars retrograde calendar that corresponds from 7849 BCE to 7834 BCE. A related clue is provided by the phrase kotz'b'alam, translated as Crunching Jaguar by Tedlock. Koht is a numerical classifier and in front of b'alam could easily refer to the Mars long-count date of 1 B'ahram, which immediately follows 2 Tz'ik'in. This would indicate that the flood happened just before 7834 BCE. What Tedlock translates as Tearing Jaguar, tukumb'alam, translates in Ch'orti' as Spittle Washing Jaguar, a slightly different image.

When I was at Igualtepec in August 2012 I was told that up until 25 years ago the lake level was much
higher, until a damn was built in Guatemala on one of the feeder rivers.
So Teotipa has been buried by water for most, if not all, of the last 9,000 years. Now, at least most years, it is revealed so that the world can know of its glory and its suffering.

12/21/2012

One of the more interesting archeological sites in the Americas is Teotipa, El Salvador. It is a 10,000 year-old village with clear signs that it was a base for early agriculture. One of its ancient teosinte fields can be seen at right. From teosinte the Maya hybridized corn.

I estimate that it was inhabited from 8,200 BCE to 7,400 BCE when it was flooded. This will need to be confirmed with more traditional dating methods. Teotipa only came into view in the last 25 five years when a damn was built upstream on one of its feeder rivers in Guatemala, according to local people. Prior to that it was underwater - perhaps for most or all of 9,400 years. Even now it is submerged some years. For that reason it is relatively well preserved. Teotipa lies within a kilometer of Guatemala on Lago Guija.

Teo - islandSi - number, line of objects, rowSi'in - extended, long, in a line or seriesTe' - plant(s)

And here are the rows where these plants were cultivated on an island:

There are two rows each three to five meters wide and perhaps 200 meters long. One can see the second row to the right in this photo. The 'rows' are lined with rocks. And much shorter grass grows in them now 10,000 years later rather than the weeds and taller grass which grow outside of the rock sidings. Some of the rocks have moved into the area of planting, which can be expected after so much time.

The range of Balsas teosinte, the precursor of corn, used to be to the south of its present range during the Ice Age. Sometime, perhaps between 8000 and 6500 BCE, the southern
range of Balsas teosinte in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala disappeared. According to University of El Salvador professor Vicente Ginovez, the people in Santa Ana, where Lago Guija is located in western El Salvador, still plant little plots of primitive corn that they called something like "ulupiche". This is not to eat but simply to please the ancestors. I believe that the name should be "ulumpitzi":

Ulum - Of the earth, of the corn field (milpa)Pitz'i - press, pinch, crushPihchi - touch

Or "crush of the corn field" - grinding what comes out of the earth. Here are the first corn grinders - the grinding hole above and the pounding stone to the right. The first corn would have been much tougher, requiring a vertical pounding motion rather than the horizontal motion used still today.

When my colleague and I reached Teotipa Island by a local boat service, five fishermen greeted us up on the rocks. They told us that there was nothing on Teotipa, that the Maya were never there and we should return to Igualtepeque. I decided to play a trump card and said that the Maya had to have been on Teotipa, since it
means "island of food". Ricardo, the leader of the group still said nothing. I stumbled off toward the higher part of the island, going very slow over the dangerous rocks. I saw a small field of corn, left, ironic on this island that gave birth to corn, but I was muttering about how I could be so wrong. There was nothing here.

I took a deep breath, turned around and saw this, below left, and knew I was in the right place.

Do you see it? [Click to enlarge.]

There is a rock wall curving from the left
back toward the right. And there is also a patch of yellow right in the middle of the picture. I rushed back to Ricardo and my colleague and pointed out the wall. Ricardo said something to the effect of "There's more. Let's go see." Later I was very thankful that he was so protective of this sacred space.

Like the teosinte fields, the imprint of the houses can still be clearly seen. Few weeds grow where these houses were. And the fallen rock walls can still be seen quite clearly.

Other rocks may have been a walkway through the difficult rocky terrain. Domesticated jaguars and pumas would have walked these paths and landscapes with the Mayan ancesors.

The houses here at the north end of the site appear older - there are less weeds and the grass seems shorter, indicating a longer period of habitation. They are also set back from the rest of the village, which could indicate that the lead families lived here. This photo looks back to the north to the higher uninhabited part of the island.

The next two photos show housing sites in what may be the newer part of the site to the southeast.

In addition to the teosinte rows there appeared to be several nursery areas where there is now very thick, verdant growth of a special grass. I imagine that this might be where they first grew the corn and other experimental crops - squash, beans, etc.

The early Maya who lived at the Teotipa site where also spiritual
people. There are several clear indicators. The first one we saw was the
clear outline of a stone circle, perhaps 15 meters in diameter.

Further evidence of the spiritual nature of these people is their name in the Popol Vuh: Nijayib'. Tedlock translates this as Great Houses. Using Ch'orti' to translate provides:

Nihk : shaking, tremblingHayitz : fast

Or "shaking fast". Clearly they were known for their fasting.

You can see that almost nothing grew inside this circle except short grass. Nature itself is keeping this sacred space clean.

The following stone was among the stones that formed the stone circle. It is clearly a cultural stone. The top half appears to be a face.

The next rock formation appeared to have a special meaning. The energy around these stones was strong.

This upside-down triangle of stones forms what was likely a fertility symbol.

Here is another cultural stone with a face.

The Maya made many journeys and made stones into walkways rather than being obstacles. But they did have obstacles - I still have more to tell about their conflict with the Xibalbhans at Corinto cave and the natural disaster that ended their stay on Teotipa. Much later I will tell about how they journeyed down the Lempa River in dug-out canoes and then near Tehuacan constructed rafts and boats to sail the Pacific Ocean.

The name for Teotipa in the Polol Vuh, Chi ismachi, directly points to this being a place for growing teosinte. Tedlock, using Quiche, translates this as Bearded Place. Using Ch'orti' it translates as "growing teosinte":

Chi - growthIximak - teosinte

Iximak would be a somewhat more recent word for teosinte and is composed of ixim (corn) and ak (grass), linking Teotipa not only to teosinte but also to corn.

All of the four destination regions are beautiful, but Lago Coatepeque and Teopan are spectacular. Today Teopan is a private playground of some of El Salvador's wealthiest families. In the photo Teopan can be seen just to the right of center. Coatepeque is a crater lake and the serpentine nature of the hills surrounding the lake is especially clear, although a similar phenomena is found at Olomega and Güija. The hills became seen as a ringed serpent
that protected the islanders. This led to another name of Coatepeque: Tamakchan, which means "deep inside the rainbow", where rainbow (makchan) means "serpent that stops up" (the rain). It is easy to see where the rainbow serpent originated. The name Tamoanchan is associated with western El Salvador (Arocha, 1990) and is found in Huasteca songs. It is possible that Tamakchan changed to Tamoanchan over the years among the Huasteca Maya.

The name Teopan means "island of sprouting", as in a plant breaking the soil. Teopan today is ringed with private yards and expensive homes. Only the eastern part has relatively few homes, as well as the top half of the island. One needs the permission of one of the island's residents to access the ferry (below) onto the island. Modern day Quiches would have to work at one of the homes in order to access their ancestral home.

While it is possible that Coatepeque is a Nahua (Pipil) overlay on the original name of the lake, meaning "serpent hill", Coatepeque does have a possible meaning in Ch'orti'. (The Quiche ancestors would have spoken proto-Chorti until they left for Mexico in about 2300 BCE. The two languages did not begin separating before that date.)

Ka- - our (prefix)Wet - companion, fellow neighbor

Or "our neighbor", from the perspective of the Ch'orti's. The later Pipils would have changed this to something meaningful in their language, adding the "tepeque" and changing vowels somewhat to go from Kawet to Coat.

Teopan and the Coatepeque lake shore have an abundance of ceramics and stones that date from the Classic or post-Classic all the way back to the pre-Classic or earlier. More are demonstrated in the photo gallery at the end. Some of the oldest ones include rocks that are carved in a way that enhances natural features, such as the one at right above found near the ceremonial mounds on Teopan. The mounds, below left, were scheduled to be excavated starting December 2012. I believe that these mounds will be dated, at their earliest level, earlier than any pre-Classic Mayan site. Most of the carved stones and
ceramic pieces on Teopan and Coatepeque have found their way into private homes, including the wealthy homes on Teopan.

The Quiche ancestors lived on Teopan from about 8200 BCE until about 2300 BCE - 5,900 years. At the latter end of that span they no doubt spilled over to the lakeshores of Coatepeque as the population increased. The Quiche are referred to as Cauec or Kawik in the Popol Vuh, a reference back to Hakawitz, the origin of tobacco. The Quiche probably were the first to cultivate tobacco.

Further evidence of the link with tobacco comes from the name of the wife of Quitze, the founder of the Quiche lineage. Her name is Kaqa Paluma:

Kah - start, beginningK'ah - happiness

Pahr - shaping, fashioningLum - earth

The name means "start of happiness" and "shaping the earth". Start of happiness is a clear reference to Hakawitz, near the present-day Salvadoran town of Alegria, and the finding of tobacco. We also see that the Quiche seem to be the first mound and pyramid builders, done in homage to Hakawitz.

When the Quiche ancestors left Coatepeque it seems likely that the Ch'orti' ancestors sent some families of their lineage at Güija to Coatepeque. These families became the Huasteca lineage and the same thing happened to them as the Quiche - they ate too much untreated corn and also began to suffer from pellagra. I believe that they were sent into exile along the northeast coast of Mexico, to their present-day home isolated from the rest of the Maya. Soon the Ch'orti' Maya discovered ash or lime as a way to treat corn and prevent pellagra; this process is called nixtamalization. Perhaps they first learned of these substances as fixing agents with natural plant dyes.

It appears that a remnant population of the Maya remained along the lake. These people are the ancesors of the present-day community of Coatepeque: one version of their oral history says that they lived along the lakeshore, then moved about ten kilometers from the lake and carried the name Coatepeque with them.

Two other local places have interesting histories. Congo means "Joint Tooth" in Ch'orti': K'om - "joint, splice"; K'o - "tooth, molar, beak". I believe that this is the place called Split Tooth in the Popol Vuh.

The second place is Siete Príncipes (Seven Princes). The name sounds like it comes from Classic Mayan days but the oral history suggests it was given by a foreigner who lived in the area in the 1950s and 1960s and wanted to highlight the seven cultural mounds grouped together so that he gave the place the name Siete Príncipes. The local people say that there are seven mounds - my colleagues and I were able to locate five of the seven on a visit in August 2012.

The mounds are obviously cultural and likely date to a period immediately after the
Huastecas' departure in about 2000 BCE. The Siete Príncipes mounds would have represented the departure from Isla Teopan and more generally the expansion out from the four islands in El Salvador to the Pacific coast, ranging from Chiapas to El Salvador, as well as to the Atlantic Coast in Belize.

From Coatepeque the Quiche ancestors could walk north-northeast to the Lempa River. Going downstream they would arrive at the meeting place called Arcatao, where they would gather regularly with the other four lineages. Further downstream at the mouth of the Lempa was Tehucan, the home of the Zapotec ancestors and later a Mayan community. Going upstream by canoe they could arrive at Lago Guija and the
Ch'orti's - although they probably more commonly walked or ran there. The fascinating mysteries of Guija are the next thing I will explore in this blog.

Photo Gallery

Carved stone from Lago Coatepeque, using natural features of the stone:

Another carved stone, possibly dating to before the pre-Classic:

The next carved stone probably dates from the early pre-Classic and one can see how the sophistication grew:

Here's a carved stone from the Classic era. This one is doing a yoga pose which serves as a based for the carving.

Other pre-Classic or Classic carved stones were found by the private landowners on Teopan and now serve as trophy pieces.

Another Classic-era carved stone on Teopan:

There are other vestiges of the Mayan presence at Teopan, including this mound:

Close to the mound were these rocks which appear to be the corner of an ancient rock wall.

The steps going to the top of Teopan appeared to be of the pre-Hispanic era:

At the very top of Teopan was this etched stone which appeared to have an astronomical formation on it:

Like the carved stones, the ceramics from Lago Coatepeque appear to span from pre-pre-Classic (on the left, below) to pre-Classic (on the right, below) to Classic to post-Classic. One also sees a range of East Asian faces to perhaps European faces on the ceramics.

The left and middle appear potentially pre-pre-Classic while on the right is likely pre-Classic.

12/01/2012

In this blog post I will establish the Zapotecs as one of the four Mayan heritages that had their beginnings at Isla Tigre, Honduras, and then on four islands in El Salvador. The Zapotec-ancestor island, at the mouth of the Lempa River (left), was called Teoahkan, which changed over time to Tehuacan among the Zapotec ancestors. Due to the rising ocean level the Zapotec ancestors moved to the area now called Puebla, Mexico, and brought the Tehuacan name along with corn seeds with them. It seems they found avocados in the Tehuacan valley and sent them back to El Salvador.

The four grandfathers of Mesoamerica are Akbar, Kinche (Quitze), Maix (Majukutaj), and Ik, the latter translated as Dark Jaguar by Tedlock. Another translation is Evening and refers to the shift that Ik took in leading the four rafts from South America to El Salvador. The Popol Vuh says that Ik had no sons:

"These three had sons, but Dark Jaguar had no son." (Tedlock, pg. 174)

So what does the Popol Vuh mean when it says that Ik had no son? It is a reference to the Maya losing track of Ik's lineage when they left. Ik is the founder of the lineage which became the Zapotec and Mixtec people. The Kiowa and the Hopi also partly share this lineage. Depending on the inflection and context, Ik' can mean air, atmosphere, wind, dusk, or dark. From about 8200 BCE to 6800 BCE Ik's lineage lived on various islands at the mouth of the Rio Lempa in El Salvador, each or at least the first called Teoahkan - "island of the learner" in Ch'orti', a language very similar to what they spoke in 8200 BCE.

Symbolically it was important for the Ik' lineage to live at the mouth of the Lempa - the Ak'bar lineage lived at one of the sources of the Lempa, Lago Guija. To have people at each end of the great river of the land they lived in completed the symbolism. Even more it was important in a practical sense: the Ak'bar and Kinche lineages would cut logs far upstream for the construction of ocean-faring sail rafts. Someone had to be at the mouth of the river to intercept the logs and assemble them into rafts.

The lower Lempa River is a volatile, changing place, especially when the Ik' lineage moved there in about 8200 BCE. The ocean was quickly rising from climate change and glacial melt. No doubt the island that they first lived on was submerged after several hundred years, or even quicker. But they had to continue to live on islands to escape their arch-enemies, the Xibalbhans, who had earlier captured them and who were afraid of water.

The constant floods and the rising water are supported by the Ik's partner's name: Kaqixaja. Tedlock translates this Macaw House. It is:

Kah - start, beginningKiix - already, by now, by thenAja - water

This could be translated "already water and beginning of the (rising) water" referring to living at the side of the ocean and then having the ocean continue to rise.

The Lempa itself often changes course during floods, cutting new channels, such as the Izcanal (left), and creating new islands. It is interesting that the name Iz canal is so similar to Ik', the lineage founder of the Zapotec. An example of the changing course of the Lempa is that it seems probable that the Lempa used to empty into the Bahia de Jiquilisco, seen on the right of the photo. And the Lempa, center of the photo, carries a large amount of silt downstream, depositing it at the mouth. This is seen in the name of the community Zamoran, about 14 kilometers from the current mouth on the east side of the river.

It was beside or across the bank from the place of transport that disappeared, either from a river flood or the rising ocean. Nancuchiname reminds us of the significance of the lower Lempa in the transportation system of the Mayan and Zapotec ancestors.

One more example of the volatility of the lower Lempa, and the reason why the Zapotec ancestors may have seen the need to migrate away, is the lagoon called Talquezal.

Tal - a coming, arrivalKer - dividing in halfTz'ah - wetness

"Coming of the wetness which divides in half." Perhaps this is referring to a Lempa flood where half of the river over-ran the banks and divided itself in two. When the flood was over the lagoon was left.

A long time after the Ik' lineage left for Mexico, the Maya built a structure in remembrance of them and called it Tehuacan - "island of the learner". It is built on the flank of the Chichontepec volcano. No doubt Tehuacan was important for the Nahuat (Pipil) people who migrated from Mexico in between 1000 and 1500 CE, some from the area of Tehuacan, Puebla. It was like coming home. In a way, it was coming home. The search was over.

The Popol Vuh refers to the Zapotec ancestors as the Saqik (Tedlock, 1996, pg 184). The translation in Ch'orti' is pertinent:

Sahk : a hunt, a searchIk' : the wind, dusk

Wind-hunter or wind-chaser. One who travels, who eventually sought out the future in the direction of the dusk, the west. But there is a double meaning, Ik' was also the name of the lineage-bearer of the Zapotecs, who became separated from the Maya. So Saqik also means "to search for the lost Ik' lineage".

I think that when the Zapotec ancestors left for Mexico in about 6800 BCE, that the Maya seeded a new community in the lower Lempa, partly to continue to receive the logs for the ocean rafts floating down the Lempa, but also due to the very good soils in the floodplain. However, while they planted close to the river, the community was likely a day's half walk away at the higher elevation to avoid both the ocean which was continuing to rise due to climate change and the river which frequently floods. The ocean was much higher then in than now in relative terms because of the historical trend for the Central America coast to be rising, caused by the Caribbean sub-continental plate rising above the Cocos sub-plate. The location of the new Ch'orti' community was likely at the Tehuacan archeological site on the flanks of the Chichontepec volcano or the nearby Tehuacan Ecological Park. The Maya kept the name Tehuacan, due to their belief in the sacredness of names.

Later the Maya would build structures at the Tehuacan site. There are at least four structures visible under the planted corn and the double-coned volcano of Chichontepec, literally the "breast peaks".

When the Tehuacan Ecological Park was being built many old and very old pieces of ceramic and formed rock were found. Many of these are found in their viewing room - photos are in the gallery below. A swimming pool was excavated and when it was filled with water, it leaked out over several hours. The floor was examined, a hole was found. It was chipped away to create a hole big enough for persons to lower themselves in. They found a rock-lined tunnel - a tunnel going in the direction of the Tehuacan ruins, a tunnel that runs for who knows how many kilometers. They were not prepared to adequately and safely explore it so they sealed it up and re-filled the stream-fed swimming pool by diverting a stream that flows from a spring up the volcano.

Not all the pieces at the Ecological Park's viewing room are from the Classic or even pre-Classic period. Some are much earlier, like the carved rock at right. This likely dates to a period earlier than 2000 BCE. Perhaps it was created to remember the Zapotec ancestors who moved to Mexico.

To where did the Zapotec ancestors migrate about 6800 BCE from the lower Lempa River? They probably scouted out various places on many trips before moving. Puebla's Tehuacan valley must have been attractive for its cool climate and avocados. That was one location. But it appears that they moved around and one other location without a doubt was the Balsas River valley where corn dated to 6700 BCE was found, in an area near the border of Michoacan, Guerrero and Mexico state (map, below). This is within the current natural range of balsas teosinte. It was necessary to continue hybridizing the corn with teosinte to make it more resistant and a stronger plant. By 6800 BCE it is possible that the range of balsas teosinte had shifted definitively northwest from Central America to southwest Mexico. The Balsas valley is 350 to 400 kilometers west of Tehuacan.

Tehuacan also gave its name to Teotihuacan, as the Zapotecs were one of the primary components of the Teotihuacanos. In Tehuacan valley the Zapotecs may have stayed at a cave called Coxcatlan. They definitely used it as a rain shelter and food storage. Plant matter has been dated within the cave starting in 8000 to 7000 BCE until just before colonial times, including avocados. Coxcatlan is highly likely to be a derivation of Cuxcatlan, the name that the Zapotec ancestors gave to the central region of El Salvador. When they arrived in Mexico they named their first home after their homeland. While the Zapotec language was already moving away from Ch'orti' when they left it is possible to gain a good idea of the meaning of Cuxcatlan.

There is no phrase lan in Ch'orti', but waran seems plausible. The 'r's and 'l's would have been interchangeable. So the difference is the wa at the beginning. There are three related possibilities: "birth of radiant super natural being", "birth of crossing of two radiant objects", or "radiant lunar eclipse". The first one seems like a more abstract use of language than I have seen at ~7000 BCE, so I discount it. The second could be describing a lunar eclipse, so the third one is my inclination. It could be referring to a powerful lunar eclipse or perhaps when they first began to predict the eclipses.

Cuxcatlan is a Mayan-Zapotec word that seems to be referring to a radiant sky event, most likely a lunar eclipse. In Mexico the Zapotecs then pronounced it Coxcatlan, but it is the same word as what became Cuscatlan in El Salvador.

The Otomi are from the same background as the Zapotec, both speaking an Oto-Manguean language. Otomi is a name that originates from the move from El Salvador. It is ot ohom mi or "shelter for cats from the foam." Cats refer to the Maya (and Zapotec/Otomi) people. Foam refers to the ocean and the fact that the Zapotec/Otomi were fleeing the rising ocean when they moved to Mexico.

The Zapotec ancestors moved to the Oaxaca valley, perhaps between 3000 and 2000 BCE. Others of their lineage stayed in the Tehuacan valley, while others moved to the Cholula or the central Mexico area.

The Zapotec ancestors found avocados in the Tehuacan valley, likely on their scouting trips before they moved there according to the archeological evidence. At some point they brought avocados back to the lower Lempa River. We know this because "West Indies" avocados, a lowland avocado, developed separately from the Mexican highland avocado. From the El Salvador-Guatemala coast the avocado was taken at a later point to the Guatemalan highlands, creating the Guatemala variety of avocado.

But there is more convincing evidence for the avocado being brought to the Lower Lempa and that is the name of the village of Pacun near the Lempa about 25 kilomters north of the current mouth. Pacun refers directly to avocado cultivation: (in Ch'orti')

Pak' - plantingUn - pear, avocado

This name could have been given by the Zapotec ancestors before they left for Mexico and their language was still very close to Ch'orti'. But more likely it was given by the Ch'orti', a portion of whom moved to the lower Lempa when the Zapotec ancestors left. In this scenario the lower Lempa Ch'orti' would have gone from their homes each day at the site of Tehuacan, San Vicente, high enough to be definitively safe from the rising ocean, and walked to the flat floodplain of Pacun to the cultivated avocados and various plants. It is likely that avocados were cultivated in the lower Lempa prior to or at the same time as avocados in the Tehuacan valley of Mexico - most likely between 6800 BCE and 6000 BCE. A later transference of the avocado from Mexico to El Salvador is doubtful since the Maya said in the Popul Vuh that they lost contact with the Zapotec ancestors. It is more likely that avocados were brought back to El Salvador by the same generation that migrated to Mexico. It is also possible that they were first found in the region of El Salvador and then taken by the Zapotec ancestors and cultivated in Mexico. This is doubtful given that some of the avocado remains in the Tehuacan valley have been dated prior to 7000 BCE. For more background on the beginnings of avocado use and cultivation: Amanda J. Landon or Galindo-Tovar, Arzate-Fernandez, Ogata-Aguilar, and Landero-Torres.

To finalize, I will look at three more names along the Lempa River: the Acahuapa River, which runs east through San Vicente to the Lempa, the Titihuapa River which forms the boundary between San Vicente and Cabañas departments, and Guayojo name of a village and forest north of Pacun. The huapa or "wapa" suffix is common to both of the rivers.

Acahuapa

Ahka - rumbleWahp - continuous

Titihuapa

Tihti - shakeWahp - continuous

So wahp or huapa was a suffix commonly used with rivers that had a continuous flow. What's interesting is that the same suffix was used to describe the creek next to the Monte Verde site in southern Chile that dates back to 12,500 BCE - the Chinchihuapi. This demonstrates the continuity in language from the moment of arriving in Chile from Asia until settlement in El Salvador in about 8200, at least with the branch of the American family that became the Ch'orti' Maya.

Finally, to conclude is Guajoyo, just upriver from the lower Lempa and the island of the learner.

Wa' - being, being in a placeHoy - likingHoyi - make satisfactory, to please

Guajoyo is "being in a place of liking". Some photos from near the place of liking follow.

Photo Gallery

Mangroves on Montecristo Island at the mouth of the Lempa River. Montecristo may be the closest thing there is to a symbolic representation of the first Teoahkan, which is likely buried under many meters of silt.

Protecting serpents on a home in California, Usulutan, not far from the mouth of the Lempa River

The largest mound at the Tehuacan archeological site.

The top of the same mound at Tehuacan, planted with corn.

View to the west from main mound. Mounds visable at the end of the field in the mid-ground. Chichontepec left flank in the distance.

The view north, where structures are outlined under the corn, possibly including a ball field.

Finely cut stone at the Tehuacan site

Likely remains of a very old rock wall about a kilometer from the Tehuacan site could indicate settlement here 7,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Guanacaste trees at the entrance to the Tehuacan Ecological Park, administered by the municipality of Tecoluca, 2 kilometers from the Tehuacan site. It had been a plantation until the 1980-1992 conflict when the FMLN gained control and used it as a base throughout the conflict.

In addition to restaurant, cabins and gardens, the Ecological Park has a viewing room. One of the more interesting and perhaps one of the oldest was this carved rock sphere.

Piece from Tehuacan

These ceramic pieces were the "feet" for bowls

Perhaps this piece provides evidence that the Maya, in addition to the Olmecs, had contact with Africa.

A Mayan character

Part of the permaculture garden at the Tehuacan Ecological Park. Tehuacan means "the learner".

Tree decaying a wall with its roots. The wall was part of the exploitative plantation here from colonial times until it was ousted by the FMLN in 1981 during the conflict. The plantation was built on a sacred Nahuat-Pipil site. The Nahuat-Pipil site was located at an earlier sacred Mayan site, evidenced by the archeological structures. The Mayan site was located in the area of the Zapotec ancestors, who lived here from about 8200 to 6800 BCE. The sign says, "What is metamorphosis?" and points in the direction of the butterfly house of the Ecological Park.

09/01/2012

Somewhere around 8800 BCE the two great human groups of the Americas - the super hunters of Northamerica and the sailors and plant specialists of Southamerica - met in El Salvador and began a confrontation that lasted for hundreds if not thousands of years. [click to enlarge map] This confrontation led to the great drama of the Xibalba lords in the Mayan sacred book Popol Vuh. Much of the confrontation of these two groups centered around the Corinto cave or rock shelter, mislabeled the Holy Spirit Cave, (click to enlarge), in northeast El Salvador.

I believe that the Popol Vuh accounts are generally more than symbolic, i.e. the Xibalba Cave really existed. Moreover, since the Mayan ancestors landed their sail rafts in El Salvador, El Salvador is the most logical place for the Xibalba Cave. Various place names, oral histories, and the paintings in the cave all support this idea.

We begin with the name of the beach near where the Mayan ancestors landed - Amatal. As mentioned earlier, tal means "arrival". Ah-ma means liar or evil one in Ch'orti', so that Amatal means either "arrival to the evil one" or "arrival of the evil one". Since the Mayan ancestors arrived at nearby Toluca, evidenced by the sailing stones and the Mayan name of Toluca, "arrival of the evil one" only makes sense if the "evil one" was encountered by the pre-Maya a few kilometers from where they landed. This is possible but somewhat unlikely in the open spaces along the beach. I think "arrival to the evil one" is a more likely meaning for Amatal ("arrival to the land of the evil one").

The second name that supports the notion of a great confrontation in El Salvador between two groups is the local indigenous name for the cave, Suncuyo. Suncuyo is a Maya name, even though now this is a Kakawira (a Miskito language group) area with the Lenca nearby. Suncuyo appears to date back to a time when the Mayan, Lenca, and Chibchab languages were still close. Here's what it means in Ch'orti':

sun - foreignerkur - pointsyo'r - hole, perforation

Suncuyo is "foreigner points in hole." What drama! The Corinto cave is covered by a mushroom-like granite cap (above, click to enlarge) which weathered away on two sides forming two caves or rock shelters. The perforation could refer to the edge above the cave where there is a 10 meter drop to the rock shelter floor. However I believe that Suncuyo is referring to another feature of the granite cap - a hole in the granite near the edge of the cap that ultimately opens up to the outside at the bottom (click to enlarge). I believe this is what the Popol Vuh refers to as the Razor House and was very instrumental in the battles between the two sides. When one goes through the hole they go from the upper world (layer) to the underworld (layer).

A third name which provides evidence of a conflict between two groups is the Lenca name for the cave: Ti Ketau Antawinikil (the cave of the human being). This is profound. The Lenca consider it the place where human beings came from. According to a Lenca elder, the name Antawinikil means “first man” or “first humans” in Lenca. The name Ti Ketau Antawinikil has a similar but intriguingly different meaning in Ch’orti’ Maya: “opening in possession of the [Anta] human being.” The strong possessive sense would seem out of place except that the translation of Anta appears to be “forest corn”, making the whole “opening in possession of the forest corn humans.” (A’n means “spring maize” and tah means “forest”.) This would then indicate that the cave belongs to the forest (wild) corn people as opposed to some other people – people who did not grow or gather corn (or teosinte) in the forest.

Who were the group of humans opposing the pre-Maya? First, it seems clear that they were hunters. There are at least two hunter paintings in the cave, unusual in Mayan caves or rock shelters. In the photo at right on can see the most prominent and dramatic paintings in the cave. [click to enlarge] At the bottom is the white outline of a hand centered within an indentation. It is the sign of the ruler of the cave. Directly above it in yellow is a clear depiction of a hunter. The hunter is carrying a spear or related object in his right hand. For a time, the hunters were the rulers of the cave. To the left is another painting that appears to be a hunter. [click to enlarge] It is highly likely that this hunter group came into the Americas from the north and were in Northamerica for some time.

Miguel Amaya, a Kakawira leader from nearby Cacaopera, says that the area from Cacaopera to Corinto [see map at top], especially along the Torola River, was an ancient hunting ground with numerous animal bones found, including one that local people believe was a mastodon. The mastodons could have been driven south and east by the Northamerican hunters.

The Popol Vuh reinforces the idea that the Xibalba cave was a cave of hunters by having one of the sections of the cave named the Jaguar room. I believe that the four families were held captive in the Jaguar area and that is how they gained their name as the Jaguar people. One of the four leaders, Maix (Not Ready Yet), is not named as a Jaguar in the Popol Vuh but his lineage, the Olmec and the Lenca, certainly share the Jaguar totem. I think the Jaguar area begins at the left in the photo and continues further to the left [click to enlarge]. The Bat area where the hunter leaders may have slept was just right of center.

A second characteristic of the hunters seems to be their tall stature. The local legend states that the first people to inhabit the cave were giants. Local legends are usually based on some actual human experience that later turned into legend. This is especially true in a place with a very strong oral history tradition like Central America. The legend also states that there were three giant men and four giant women, perhaps indicating that there were generally more women than men among the hunters. A (probably) modern add-on to the legend states that the giants were from outer space.

The legend is reinforced by the presence of either natural or cultural cave features that appear to be very tall ghost-like people (left). This cave feature is near the exit of the cave on the west end. These cave features are perhaps seven or eight feet tall. To me they appeared to be a natural feature rather than cultural. Their style was also very different from all the other paintings, although that could be explained if the tall people made them.

Next to these "giant figures" are a series of many other "figures" along the west wall, where most of them are obviously natural rather than cultural (right, below). Whether or not the paintings are cultural should not determine the possibility that the hunters were much larger than the pre-Maya/pre-Olmec.

The other evidence for tall hunters is from the Popol Vuh, which states that the pre-Mayan/pre-Olmec leader One Hunahpu married a woman named Xb'aqiyalo, translated as Egret Woman. This refers to a foreign woman with tall legs. Apparently One Hunahpu married one of the tall women from the other group of humans. The Xb'aqiyalo name has a double meaning of Xibalba, the Mayan name for the people in the cave.

Other evidence for a tall opposing group of humans comes from local traditions and folklore. The Ch'orti's practice a dance in eastern Guatemala which involves two giants, one white, one black. The giants move around very slowly until finally the black giant (the Maya) slays the white giant (the Xibalba). The Dance of the Giants is documented in The Esotericism of the Popol Vuh by Raphael Girard. In the dance, the white giant represents Xibalba and the giants mentioned in the Popol Vuh, Vukup Cakix, Zipacná, and Caprakán. The black giant has a large headdress with a tall shaft. Two additional dance figures represent the Mayan twins, one has a sun identity and one the moon. The black giant then dances in battle against the moon twin. The twins cut each other up and when the black giant sees they are still alive says, "cut me up too." They do and he is killed. This is very similar to a story in the Popol Vuh.

Another bit of evidence for a group of tall opposing people comes from two more traditional dances involving giants in Nicaragua, an area where the pre-Olmec, pre-Lenca were present. In Leon it's the dance of the Gigantona (the giant woman). Her identity seems to be more that of a very tall colonial white woman, but it's possible this modern interpretation is covering up an indigenous gigantona story and dance that dates back to Xibalba. Further south in Diriamba there is the dance of El Gigante (the giant). His identity seems to be that of the giant in the biblical David and Goliath story, which is very similar to the moon twin vs black giant dance mentioned above. The dance also brings in the Moors vs. Christians dance found elsewhere in Central America. Both of these components of the dance may be based on older indigenous dances that date back to Xibalba.

Who made the paintings? My quick view of the cave indicated that white might be the bottom layer of paint in the cave. I believe that white was the color of paint used by the hunters and that all the other colors were used by the sailing people, the pre-Maya and pre-Olmec, once they had fully secured the cave at least a thousand years later. In addition to the white hand outlined above, the two figures in white are some of the only white painting. They appear to have headdresses that are like two feathers. White paint most likely came from calcium carbonate deposits which is often formed by marine sediments. It is possible it was found in the Gulf of Fonseca region which is about 50 kilometers the cave.

I believe that the colored paints - the browns, reds, oranges, and yellows - were all done by the sailing people. These colors all correspond to red ochre or iron oxide. There might be substitutes for one or two of these colors but probably not all four. The only identified iron oxide mine in the Americas before 1000 BCE is at Taltal, northern Chile. The sailing people may have come from there and it is highly likely that they maintained contact with Taltal by sail. I think that the colored paintings were done after the sailing people secured the cave a long time after the first encounter. However, I think its probable that these sailing people found a local source for iron oxide, since there is a high level of iron in the soil in eastern El Salvador and into Honduras. More research is needed on this question. For example, did these people discover and utilize the iron oxide at Agalteca, Honduras, 130 kilometers northwest of the cave?

When did this encounter occur? I believe that this encounter dates to 8,680 BCE (+/- 200). This is based on the belief that the pre-Maya/pre-Olmec associated the tall hunters with one of the 20 Mayan day signs, the day sign Death. In addition, the Mayan-Olmec ancestors developed a long-count calendar based on the retrograde motion of Mars within the Milky Way.

The mars retrograde calendar is referenced within the Popol Vuh. For example: "And these are the lords over everything, each lord with a commission and a domain assigned by One and Seven Death." The format is that the first name refers to who - One Death, which would be the leader of the hunters, and the second name refers to when - Seven Death. The first time that Mars turned retrograde (in over 5,000 years) on the day sign Seven Death would have been about 8,680 BCE. Thus the pre-Maya associated Seven Death with the events that took place on the approximate date we know to be 8,680 BCE. Those events, based on Popol Vuh narratives, include their sail landing and subsequent capture by the tall hunters led by One Death.

It is also interesting that the Lenca name for the cave, mentioned above, can be understood in Ch’orti’. These are languages that diverged between 3,500 and 5,000 years ago, which would seem to indicate that the cave name dates to that same period before the two languages were divergent.

What the encounter consists of? Most of the information about the encounter comes from the Popol Vuh, which indicates that the hunters were very violent and that conflict lasted for a very long time. I believe that the sailing people were able to escape the cave after a few months and journeyed around for many years before settling in Isla Tigre, Honduras, and then to four islands in El Salvador. They went to islands because the hunter people were afraid of water, which is what Xibalba means: "those afraid of water".

A major confrontation took place when One Hunaphuh (Ajchuk in Ch'orti') went to the cave at the time of Seven Hunaphuh. The Popol Vuh says: "One and Seven Hunapuh left, guided down the road by the messengers. And then they descended the road to Xibalba." One Hunapuh refers to one of the pre-Mayan leaders. Seven Hunapuh refers to the date 7,900 BCE in the Mars retrograde calendar, 800 years after the initial capture and escape. The Popol Vuh then says that the sons of One Hunapuh defeated Xibalba - the hunters - once and for all - killing them all. This might be literal that it was the sons but it could some later generation. My best guess is that by 7,400 BCE the Mayan-Olmec ancestors (the jaguar people) secured the cave. The pre-Olmec/Lenca people became the caretakers of the cave although much later the Kakawira people, who also shared the same history of being captured in the cave, came back from Nicaragua, became the caretakers of the cave, and took up the jaguar practice.

There is a second rock shelter on the opposite side of the granite cap, (right), called Torro (Bull) Cave by locals. It has similar rock paintings, although fewer. There were no bulls in the Americas at that time. The animal closest to the bull are the tapir (danta). The image of the tapir is associated with the Death day sign which is itself associated with Xibalba, so it is not surprising that the cave may refer to the tapir.

The relationship between the Lenca-Olmec ancestors and the hunters seems different than the relationship between the Maya ancestors and the hunters. I believe that this stems from the captivity. Maix, the Lenca-pre-Olmec leader, means "not ready yet," referring to his young age and the lack of confidence that he could lead the raft flotilla. I believe that Maix was the generic "hunapuh" leader that the Popol Vuh refers to as marrying Egret Woman, a tall hunter woman. The Lenca believe that the painting at left [click to enlarge] represents the first Lenca man and women. In the Lenca tradition the oral history is passed on woman to woman. Egret Woman began that oral tradition and she told a different history about the hunters than what the Maya youth would hear. The Lenca today say that their oral history states that they were always there in eastern El Salvador. That's because Egret Woman may have said, "We were here already when you sailing people came. We've always been here for as long as we can remember." As the Popol Vuh says, they are a people formed by the blood of the tapir and by the blood of the sea serpent.

Finally, going back to the sailing people who landed on the central El Salvador coast, how did they end up in the hunters' cave? Given the conflictive nature of their encounter, it is highly unlikely it was voluntary, which would indicate that they were captured. Later events seem to indicate that they were captured before they knew much of anything about the region now called El Salvador. So they were probably captured within 70 kilometers of Toluca Beach.

I believe that once they placed the four grandfather stones at Toluca Beach they moved east since the incline to the northwest and north is quite steep within a few kilometers. They may have made their first campsite at Nuevo Eden, five miles north of Comolapa International Airport and 15 to 17 kilometers east of the Toluca Beach site. Eden (eten) means "the clearing" in Ch'orti', with a connotation of human-made. In another 45 kilometers they would have reached the Lempa River. I believe that once they made rafts and poled their way across the river the Xibalba hunters lay in ambush on the other side. Captured, they were marched to a cave that their descendants would rename about 1,400 years later Suncuyor "foreigner in pointed hole."